Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
by Alter Ego Bob
Summary: After mishandling a priceless artifact found in Peru, young archaeologist, Sharena Perry, is transported to late 1930's New York City. Running into one Joseph Joestar, a young man who can use hamon, she decides to follow him around for research, only to get tied up in his quest to eliminate the deadly pillar men. JosephxOC? (Slight AU for added villains and scenarios time travel)
1. People and Places

She was specifically told not to touch the statue by Doctor Schon. The problem with the eighteen year old blonde, however, was that she had never been one to completely listen to anything her archaeology professor had to say, whether he was her boss or not. The young female had been working as an intern for the better part of her summer. Hoping to gain more experience in her chosen career field, that topic being historical uses of hamon, she had traveled down to South American to search for various relics tied to the subject. Of course legally she couldn't just go there on her own and steal what she pleased, instead she had to go through a rigorous application process to get Doctor Schon to take her on as a pupil. The statue she was currently watching over while her retainer went to find strong coffee for their most likely all-nighter of mapping out and cleaning the bloody thing. The pillarous stone man was hopefully going to give a tad of insight into why hamon had been developed in the first place and why its originally users went extinct in less than a hundred years, the true reasoning having been lost with the ages. The statue itself was nothing spectacular, and certainly not the first of its kind. Another archaeologist and his team had found one in Japan and a Russian man and his son had accidentally uncovered two that were attached to each other in Siberia. This one had been tested and been found to be made of the same stone used in the other statues she discovered, however they could not view the others, because they were under tight lock and key within their respective countries. The only thing special about the hilariously muscular pillar man in the room with her was the blue and gold scarab ring on the statue's left pinky finger. The ring seemed so out of place, it was nearly perfect, not having aged a bit and seemed to have almost an eerie hum to it. Plus from a geological stand point it depicted an Egyptian winged scarab, a common Middle Eastern and African design, but definitely not in the Americas.

As the female archaeologist observed it closer and closer she seemed to almost become hypnotized by the deep sapphire color to the extent that she got up from her seat in the corner of the room to get closer. Remaining in place for a moment, content with just observing it, the sudden urge to touch it, to feel its unique patters on her fingers. The girl began to move again, each step she took towards it making her boss's words become quieter in her head. Mindlessly she outstretched her hand to caress the golden piece, her pale fingers caressing the air around it. Just as the intern attempted to close the distance between her phalanges and the priceless artifact, she felt a slight shock go through her appendage. A crack began to form right where she was about to touch, webbing out until the entire hand of the statue was covered in cracks, and just like that, starting at the edge of the pinky where the ring rested, the statue began to crumble, the cracks consuming the entire statue as it began to crumble as well.

Coming to her senses she leapt back slightly as the world seemed to move in slow motion, the statue she and her mentor had spent so long digging up, and she had spent even longer making deals with the Peruvian government to have shipped to New York City to be studied. Her aquamarine eyes landed on the golden ring falling along with the rubble, she needed to at least save that little bit of it the statue, it could be the key to continuing their research! Reaching forward to grab it her calculations of how fast it was falling and the distance were inaccurate. Rather than catching the jewelry before it fell to the floor and possibly shattered, the circle of gold slipped onto her left ring finger. Just as it made its new home on her pale digit, the sapphire scarab loop seemed to form to her finger, though it seemed much too big to fit where it had. She stared down at the ring for a moment, the gems and gold glinting in the faux sunlight of the lamp above her.

For a moment the girl did nothing but gape at the ring and then back at the shattered statue, the remains of which had mixed with a crimson dust on the cement floor. She was completely awestruck at what had happened, and unsure as to what she could do to relinquish the situation. However, before she could register a single other thought, a crushing pain hit her chest, her ability to breathe becoming incredibly difficult. Clutching her sides and gasping for air, another shock of pain went through her nervous system draining every bit of energy she seemed to have as she collapsed to the floor. The blonde clenched her teeth in agony while her eyes clamped tightly shut. Her head began to spin as her body began to feel stretched and morphed. But the only thing she could process was the throbbing of every one of her major arteries and organs.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, the pain and odd sensations all disappeared. The random change was so surprising to her that the young woman almost thought she had imagined the whole thing. Immediately her eyes fluttered open and she was met with an unexpected brightness, and despite her blurred vision eliminating most of its effects, her teal eyes shut on reflex. A slight ringing in her ears she had not noticed before that moment, began to fade and it was replace with what sounded like old-fashioned boat horns and sloshing waves, both of which were impossible considering her previous position within her university's historical research hall. She wondered if while inebriated by the pain she had received a concussion of some sort to cause her ear drums to process such an out of place sound, there was no way she was anywhere, but where she had been, right? Slowly moving to an upright sitting position, her eyes flickered open once more only to be bombarded by the bright light once again. As her eyes adjusted she could see a bright blue sky with very few clouds, sitting below it lay the skyline of a city, vaguely resembling New York if it was half as tall, and smoke was being pumped into the atmosphere from a cluster of factories in the distance.

Using the bit of energy she had after her bizarre bodily experience, she got up onto her feet, dusting herself off, despite the lack of dirt on her clothing. Moving her head around to observe where she was the archaeologist was met with large tankers and passenger boats tying in at various large, wooden docks in front of her, but they seemed rather old-timey compared to what she had seen before. Unknowingly she used her right hand to rub the ring still placed on her other hand in an almost comforting manner. The blonde's eyes shifted back and forth, trying to determine where she was based on her new surroundings.

Her observations were interrupted by a deep: "excuse me, Miss," that was grunted out with a thick Brooklyn accent from behind her. She turned around to meet the gazes of two bearded men wearing thirties era patched clothing. They were jointly carrying a large wooden crate along the dock, sweat dripping from their brows. Quickly, realizing she was in their way, the girl jolted out of their path while grumbling out a quick apology. With a shameful blush, she decided it was best to walk around as to not become a road block to those working. With her champagne colored hair rustling in the wind and a slight sashay to her hips, the female began an attempt to explore the docks, weaving in and out of the way of various workers and attracting rather peculiar looks from those who paid her even the slightest attention as they crossed paths. It perturbed her the way they seemed almost offended by her general being, was it her way of dressing or her short hair that made them stare? Either way, she prayed they'd quit doing so soon, their judging eyes were getting on her nerves as what seemed like hours passed. Then, unexpectedly, her scouring eyes fell upon something, or rather someone who dazzled her. Deep green eyes met hers and she could not help that she was, for a moment, stopped in her tracks. She was absolutely taken by the color, it was almost as hypnotizing as the stone on the ring she now wore. The male whom the lovely emerald irises belonged to, noticed her staring and he too became still from his place at the pier. He was beside an older, but finely dressed woman, and they seemed to be traveling together as they had shared luggage. Their scrutiny of each other was interrupted when the older women elbowed the male's side roughly and scolded him for something. Feeling frazzled at getting the young man in trouble she ducked into a passing crowd of people exiting a passenger ship. As the crowd swept her away she continued to wonder how she had gotten to this place and why everyone dressed like they were from World War II. Her hunch at the possibility of it all being a dream rapidly increasing as time went on and her surroundings became even stranger.

When she finally escaped the swarm of warm bodies, the blonde realized she was no longer on the docks, but in a bustling town square. She felt like she was in a second-world country with how the architecture was designed and with all the cart peddlers shouting what they were selling hoping to attract customers. Another thing she really began to notice was all the women in longer dresses and the dozen or so, old fashioned Ford cars that released thick black exhaust from the back as they moved down a small street nearby. From her right she could have sworn she'd heard someone yell something about Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler's Germany. Her brain deeming it a weird and dated combination for headline news. Her eyes widened slightly as her majoring-in-history-mind churned, slowly putting each puzzle piece together. Her newly developed theory was immediately backed up by a piece of newsprint being shoved in her face while someone yelled various headlines at her. The female's eyes widened at the date on the newspaper and location, she now knew that not only was she in the year 1938, but she was still in New York. She stumbled back and gripped the sides of her head, attempting not to screech in panic. Her head began to spin, and strangers once again looked at her oddly. The peddler with the newspaper approached her, still adamant on selling her the paper. She shook her head back and forth and took a few more steps back before turning around and bolting. Fleeing from her problems was all she could ever do and had ever done. Her eyes were watery and her vision blurred as she sprinted until her lungs burned, only to keep going.

Only when she ran into what felt like, and was about as tall as, a brick wall and fell on her buttocks did she both cease her childish behavior, but also had her tear ducts run jerk backwards from the impact was so fast the blonde barely had any time to process what had happened until a thick British accent pulled her out of her emotional slump.

"Watch where you are going!" the barrier spat. She blinked for a moment before rubbing her head. She ungracefully stumbled to her feet before dusting herself off, despite the lack of dirt on her vest.

"I'm really sorry about that, sir, I seem to be rather out of sorts today…" she muttered remorsefully before looking up to meet the same deep emerald eyes she had seen on the pier. The man blinked for a moment while the young woman's greenish blue eyes widened in recognition, as they both stood there and gawked. "Did I see you on the pier? If that was you I am sorry for getting you in trouble with your grandmother or whatever, I did not mean to stare." The girl was the first to look away, pink spreading on her cheeks in awkwardness, she rarely spoke to such handsome men, especially after both being caught staring at them and then running in to them.

"I didn't mean to yell at you, at first I didn't realize that you were a- well a girl." His speech faltered for a moment, unsure as to what to say or do next, the female before him looked so different compared to what he normally saw, despite his various travels with Mister Speedwagon throughout the known world. She had big Caribbean-blue irises beneath long eyelashes. Her cheeks bone were high upon her face and her skin was rather pale compared to her pinkish lips. Golden blonde bangs were swept across her forehead, fringe framing her face and covering up what assumed to be smaller ears, the fair-haired tresses as a hole didn't quite reach her shoulders, and was relatively choppy, almost like she had impulsively cut it herself. His eyes traveled further down to see a long-sleeved, white dress shirt with several of the top buttons undone, revealing just the top of her cleavage, over top was a brown vest that was completely unclasped, it was the same color as the belt that held up beige dress-pants, which at the bottom had been tucked into brown riding boots. His gaze swept back up to her face, his observations had been noticed if her reddened face had anything to say about it. He couldn't help, but to think how pretty she was. He had several hours to kill before Granny Erina would expect him, so he decided he wouldn't mind getting to know her story at least a tad.

Looking around for the elderly woman making sure she wasn't around to scold him for being impolite, he cleared his throat and held out a lightly tanned, and rather large, hand to her, "Sorry for yelling, like I said I didn't know you were a girl, if Granny was around I am sure she'd have my ass! So, I might as well introduce myself, the name's Joseph Joestar, it's nice to meet you!" She just stared in shock for a moment before looking up to meet his eyes again. Suddenly, her hand shot out to meet his with an unexpectedly firm handshake as she opening her lips that had a slight upturn with her reply:

"Sharena Perry, archaeologist, it's my pleasure, Mister Joestar."


	2. Anytime

**"** ** _Sharena Perry, archaeologist, it's my pleasure, Mister Joestar."_**

"Sharena? Sounds exotic," Joseph chuckled, "Also, Mister Joestar sounds way too formal, stick to Joseph or something. Most people shorten it to Jojo,"

"Maybe if we go anywhere past acquaintances I'll think about calling you by that silly nickname." She gave him a smirk. He gave her a slight glare and stomped his foot.

"It isn't silly! It's a Joestar tradition!"

"Tradition you say? How would that be?" her voice took on a genuinely curiosity.

"If you can tell me where I can quench my thirst, and perhaps keep me company for an hour or two, I might tell you." His slight flirting mixed with his British accent caused the blonde to look away in embarrassment, never before had anyone been so straightforward with her. However, she quickly brushed it off as him being not only a foreigner from England, but also as being nice to her as he had previously suggested making up for his transgression. She truly was in a different time period where people would make up for simply yelling at them after being bumped into on the street. She was foolish for thinking he was flirting with her in anyway when being polite was simply how folks were during this time. Returning her gaze back to the bulky Brit, she stared up at him for just a moment. 'He is so large, I would hate to get on his bad side.' She thought, cringing at the reminder of the pain of simply running into him.

"Sharena." His deep voice brought her attention back to him.

"Ah yes, sorry, Joseph, you see my arrival here in New York City has me rather in a tizzy so my attention span has run thin." She admitted, though inside she knew that was only half a truth.

"Aw wait? You aren't from New York? And I thought I had a free local guide." He teased

"I am! Uh, I mean I am, yes, but I haven't been here recently, so I don't recognize much." She prayed he wouldn't ask any questions past that, not realizing that Joseph was smarter than most and though he was not sure of what was going on with her, he knew something was amiss.

Wisely, he chose not to comment on it, as long as she wasn't a threat to him or those he cared for, he had no need to know whatever secrets she held. Besides, he had other things to worry about at the moment, like why the old man had yet to arrive in New York despite his sudden demand that he and Granny Erina come to the United States to meet him. From the corner of his eyes he observed his companion, she looked just as out of shape as he felt.

With a sigh he grabbed the blonde's tender arm, lightly yanking her forward with him. He cringed as he felt her wince in his grasp, her body was much more delicate than he had first imagined, making him feel a sense of remorse for knocking into her and scolding her when he had most likely -and unintentionally- hurt her then as well. His grandmother would have his ass if he just went on his way, he could tell her it was an accident, but she would blame him for not paying attention, he would cheer this woman up if it was the last thing he did.

"J-Joseph where are we going?!" she yelped, nearly tripping over her feet as he tugged her along.

"I need something to drink," he quickly replied while adjusting his hat with his free hand.

The hulking male hauled his companion through the crowds, blatantly pushing through people with hardly any care for how his actions were affecting others. The much shorter female felt like she needed to say something about his behavior, but instead just let him do as he pleased, there was no way to get her hand back now that his warm and gargantuan palm encased hers so tightly as they maneuvered. After what seemed to be forever, but was really less than ten minutes, the brunette stopped abruptly. The unexpected stop nearly caused Sharena to fall on her face, had it not been for two strong arms grabbing her tight and keeping her on her feet, she most certainly would have.

"Thank you for catching me, Joseph, but warn me if you plan to blunder through the streets with me in tow ever again." she huffed out good-naturedly, the smallest of smiles gracing her pale features. Joseph looked down at her, giving her a toothy grin that she determined to be saying 'no promises'. His emerald eyes drifted to his original reason for pausing his movements, a small umbrella topped cart, with a dusty-haired man with an unmatching dark beard standing behind it. The peddler was shouting out the various cold drinks he hoped to sell to any passerbys. The female's eyes advanced to the vendor's goods as well. The sight of the merchant handing icy cold bottles made both their thirsts increase tenfold, especially after their sprint through the city.

Joseph was the first to step up to the man, his hands in his pockets as he approached the stand.

"Whatcha sellin drink wise?" Joseph questioned the vendor, his hat pulled down, nearly covering his eyes and flattening out his fringe.

"All I've got left is ice cold Coca Cola, my good sir!" he answered him, pulling out a translucent bottle from his chilled cart as a reference.

"Co-ca Co-la?" the brown-haired male tested the foreign words on his tongue, "What exactly is that?" His finger left his pocket to point at the mahogany liquid, while raising a suspicious and thick eyebrow. His blond associate gaped at him, shocked by his revelation.

"You must be joking, Joseph! You have truly never had Coca Cola?" the young woman sputtered out. "Sure, you're from across the pond, but you haven't even heard of it? Not once? You should definitely try it, Joseph, I think you'll really like it." She reached her slim hand out to grab the glass bottle from the seller's hand. The uniformed peddler retracted his product from her reach.

"You need to pay for it first, dear," the man stated before addressing the tallest of the three: "Your wife is right, this stuff is good, you should buy a bottle to share with her." Red fireworks burst below the surface of Sharena's porcelain skin at his insinuation. The seller continued speaking, ignoring her reaction, "Anyhow, if you want a drink, pay me. Money is the rule here." Opening her mouth to contend his words, the weight of the giant beside her placing his warm hand on her shoulder shocked any protests back down her throat. He only removed it to reach into the pocket of his red jacket and remove a brown leather wallet. The archaeologist was surprised to see a stack of American dollars messily stuffed in it, it did not entirely surprise her with the lush colors and materials of his clothing and of the elderly lady he had arrived with.

During the time the girl was observing him, the brunette began fiddling with the cash in his wallet, hoping to pick out an amount that wouldn't require him to receive too much change. Discovering the lowest bill he had was a five he slipped it out between his fingers, a smile on his lips in anticipation for a the cold, thirst-quenching drink. As soon as he traded the money for his drink a shocking thing happened. From seemingly nowhere, a young male with dark skin swooped in between the blonde and the brunette, gabbing Joseph's wallet, and knocking over Sharena as he made his escape into a nearby alley. Before either of them could recover from the shock, the vendor pointed in the thief's direction, "Quick! After him friend, he took your wallet!" the man exclaimed.

The female archaeologist sat up, rubbing her lower back from the impact and looking up at her frowning acquaintance's steeled green eyes. He looked down at her for a moment before putting his hand out to help her up. "Are you alright, Sherrie?" he questioned, a hint of concern in his voice.

"There is no need for your concern," she tried to say with a smile, only to wince slightly as Joseph hauled her to her feet. "The guy is right, you need to go get that guy who took your wallet." She continued, ignoring her new nickname. The colossal man nodded in agreement.

"Sorry that our time together was cut short, but there is no reason to get you involved in what may happen next." The blonde's eyes went wide, he was planning to leave her behind, she may never see him again, but before she could protest he began to stalk towards the backstreet where he assumed the pickpocket would be. Sharena observed from her safety by the stand, unsure of what to do know that she was alone again, with no idea how to get home and no one to help her survive until then. That is until she looked back up to where Joseph had went, she noticed he was just standing at the edge of the dark alleyway, his mouth moving as he took of his hat, revealing gravity defying brown locks. A sudden worry hit the female, she was worried something was going to happen to him.

Unconsciously her legs began to carry the girl towards Joseph's jacket-clad back, her breaths becoming deeper and more drawn out, fresh oxygen flooding through her body. She was ready to kick the ass of anyone who dared harm her new friend.

As she grew closer she overheard Joseph addressing someone in between the buildings, "I'm curious," he voiced with his deep British accent, his finger up seemingly to make his point heard, "I don't understand why you did that. What was the purpose behind it?"

His seemingly innocent question -about what, Sharena didn't know- gained him a pig squeal of an answer of, "There's no purpose! I do what I feel like dimwit!" The blonde could not understand what he said next as she skidded to a stop behind Joseph's hulking back, preparing to jump out and hit the first person she say; however, she was, literally, beaten to the punch. The brown-haired Brit had planted his giant fist into the face of an obscenely obese and disagreeable-appearing police officer. The girl held back her yelp of surprise.

"You picked the wrong man to mess with, pig!" The green-eyed assaulter bellowed as he drew back his fist. The supposed enforcer of the law cried out in pain. Stepping forward to look closer at the damage dealt, she noticed that the force of her former companion's fist had caused the officer's hand to pierce through his nose. She was horrified at the sight, there was no way a normal person could have done such a thing, no matter their size, her acquaintance was nothing short of a superman; whether he was an actual hero or not remained to be seen. Abruptly, from the corner of her eyes she noticed the partner of the battered officer pull his gun out and shakingly aim it at Joseph.

"Y-you're resisting me!" he shouted, clearly terrified at the intensifying situation he was in.

"Joseph, be careful he has a gun!" she warned, pointing at the wielder of the weapon. The chocolate-haired young man looked down at the blonde, surprised she had followed him, but nodded in affirmation of her words. His gaze moved back to the remaining aggressor; he spit on the ground and took a challenging stance.

"Shoot Me!" he dared the cop. "But I'm warning you, when you pull the trigger I'll break your finger like a matchstick!" Sharena was unsure how to react to Joseph's threat, hoping he was bluffing to avoid more confrontation. Unfortunately, the cop was unfazed by the threat steadies his gun and retains his ground.

"Not from over there! I'll blow your brains out!" he screeches as he does what the female considered unthinkable, he cocked the gun, his finger beginning to press down on the trigger. Time seemed to slow down for the female as her eyes went from the man holding the gun, to the English male beside her, but when she looked at the latter her eyes went wide.

She had never seen anything like it, her mouth agape. Joseph Joestar stood there, breathing in intensely and holding his bottle. Both he and the glass object were glowing with what she knew was concentrated hamon. She was breathless, seeing such powerful hamon here in front of her was nothing short, but amazing to her. After so many years of believing it was a lost and hidden art, that only a dozen people may have used in her day; yet, this handsome and hulking person looked like a demi god before her, his hair rustling as the sun power flowed within his body, his body tensed in ready to defend himself. Never before had she been this awestruck and amazed, she needed to study him, to find out how he came about it and why he of all people could use it.

The bottle within his hand began to tremble, the cola within it fizzing like it had been agitated until it came to a breaking point. The cap of the bottle flew off of the bottle and went hurtling through the air. And in a split second of incredibly skill –or perhaps luck- the top hit the finger of the trigger-happy officer. Both she and the young thief who sat against the wall, were flabbergasted by Joseph's power, though only one of them truly understood it. The cop screeched as he stared at his obliterated finger, no doubt he was in intense pain. Joseph played it off coolly, simply chugging down his Coca Cola as the law enforcement were on the ground wailing in agony. Suddenly, a switch seemed to have went off in the goliath male began to freak out similarly to when he had first scolded her for knocking into him earlier.

"I lost my temper again!" he vexed, grabbing his head in what seemed to be anxious fear. "N-now I'll definitely be in trouble! First that girl earlier and now this, Granny Erina will be furious!" The female archaeologist looked on the ground where the bleeding thief from earlier was staring at the brunette man once more with widened eyes, clearly confused as to what was going on with him. Despite having seen a minutely similar breakdown earlier, she too was rather surprised that he could batter police and then worry what his grandmother would think about the ordeal. She was torn from her thoughts when he addressed her and the young male in the alleyway he had defended, "So, Mr. Pickpocket, Miss Archaeologist, shall we hightail it?" he suggested, before placing his hands in his pockets as he exited the alley to street, whistling inconspicuously as he went.

His remaining companions' eyes met, both having not the slightest clue what was happening or who this Joseph Joestar really was. Both decided it was better to follow the crazy person than remain here to find even more insane law enforcement; although Sharena had her own reasons to follow behind, she wanted to study his hamon ability, and learn more about not only his history with it, but what had happened in this man's life to cause it to manifest in him of all people...


	3. Do You Recall?

After escaping the crime scene created by one Joseph Joestar, a thief, an archaeologist, and a Brit arrived at a less populated part of town, two of the three hoping for some sort of explanation for the day's events. The brunette man in question ended up leaning against a support beam for the bridge overhead, his arms crossed in front of him. The darker-skinned teenager took a seat next to him on the pillar's concrete base. The young archaeologist had remained standing, placing one hand in her pants pockets and using the other to adjust her short golden strands to look somewhat presentable; transporting between worlds, being knocked over several times, and fleeing a crime scene did not help her already tousled hair. For a few tense moments the odd trio did nothing but sit and stare at each other. Shifting eyes waiting for someone, anyone to speak.

"I owe you big time, mister," The shortest of the group pointedly voiced towards his savior, breaking the silence. "My name's Smokey, What's yours?" he continued, gesturing towards himself.

His addressee stood up straight for a moment, sliding his feet out into an action hero pose, "Joestar, Joseph Joestar." He declared, an air of coolness wafting about him leaving the blonde to wonder why he hadn't been so showy when introducing himself to her. "You can call me, Jojo" after giving Smokey time to bask in all that was Joseph Joestar, the older male jerked a thumb in Sharena's direction, "She's Sharena Perry, she's a native New Yorkian like you are."

The blonde nodded in polite greeting.

"Huh, never seen you around, and I have been all over this city." Smokey noted, an inquisitive look in his eyes. "On a change of subject, Jojo, you must tell me how you shot the bottle cap at that cop!"

The green-eyed man shrugged, "I have no idea, but apparently my gramps could do it when he was my age." He stated, catching notice of the way the female perked up at his words, clearly intrigued by what he was saying, he had a feeling she knew something about hamon and had decided he would ask her about it in a more private setting.

"What about your parents? Can they do that stuff?" questioned Smokey.

"Both of them have been dead since before I can remember, but Uncle Speedwagon told me that he had no affinity for it whatsoever, so who knows." The way Joseph spoke so carelessly about not having parents left his audience even more confused, but they let it slide as they realized the sun would begin to set very soon. The tall brown-haired boy said something about having to meet his grandmother for dinner, and so Smokey suggested allowing him to show the way back to his hotel, to which he agreed. Sharena had decided to tag along, slightly panicked at the prospect of being in the middle of downtown New York City in the middle of the night, which brought up even more worries as to what she would do after her companions were gone and she had to face the fact that she was stuck in 1938 with no way home. Despite her fretting, she stalked behind Smokey and Joseph who were getting along well, discussing their family backgrounds and the like. Every once in awhile the red-coated male would steal looks back at his female companion, noticing how distraught he was and trying to figure out what her issue was. He leaned over to whisper something in the other teen's ear before shortening his long-legged strides as to fall into step with the blond girl; he lightly nudged her arm with his own. "You okay?" he grunted out, not entirely expecting a response.

"Honestly? No, no I'm not, but it is nothing to concern yourself with." She politely replied, giving him a clearly faked smile. His reply was nothing but a disbelieving snort.

"Don't be ridiculous, I can notice you've been off since I met you." He rubbed his chin as he spoke, as if contemplating her actions. The girl just grew frigid for a split second before looking away from his calculating-green gaze.

"Would you stop looking at me like that? It's like you trying to solve me like a rubix cube!"

"I have no clue what this 'rubix cube' is, but I'm only looking at you the way you did while I fought off those pigs earlier."

"I won't deny that what you are saying is true, but you're a living user of hamon, that is what my field of study is, the archaeology of hamon. Plus, the handful of people that use it in present day have nowhere near the affinity for it you have, you're clearly a natural," Sharena's eyes lit up as they met Joseph's as she continued, "You are incredibly intriguing and while I am here I would love to study one such as you!" For the second time that day her words came out a little too enthusiastic and loud, the surprise on her companion's face leaving her with a dusting of pink on her cheeks.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to weird you out or anything, I suppose that my work sometimes gets me a little more animated than is socially appropriate. I think I have bothered you quite long enough as is, perhaps we will meet again someday." She trailed off, turning to make a rather disheartened exit, apprehension creeping back into her mind of the uncertain future in this strange time. Had she even a smidgen less self-control there was no doubt the girl would have broken down right then and there, but she needed to remain strong and find her way. She began to realize that simply bothering the young Joestar was not going to make her problems disappear, especially when she was the cause of her own strife in the first place. As the blonde trudged away she didn't notice the brunette change his stride to follow her. His powerfully large legs made it possible for him to easily catch up to the adolescent.

As he approached her she froze, most likely sensing his looming presence behind her. He placed two large palms on her shoulders and whirled her around to face him. As Joseph let go of her shoulders he moved his hand up to his chin to make an almost insulted pose. "Decided I'm not good enough for you eh? One second you nearly worship my use of hamon and the next you run off on me like that! I feel the utmost disrespect, Miss Perry." He mocked.

She sat there, once again awestruck by the bizarre young man, each thing she heard from his mouth perplexing her even more than the last. He waited a moment before grinning at her utter bewilderment. "Granny Erina will have my ass if I leave you out here alone, let's go before you get me into trouble." Sharena opened her mouth to dispute him, only to be interrupted with a bulky palm over mouth. "Don't argue or I'll kiss you to keep you quiet." Her eyes went wide at the man's words as she backed away from him, her hands covering her scarlet face. "That's what I thought, let's go."

Joseph turned his back to her, walking back towards their original destination. His blond companion quickly followed with a huff. Their whole way to the hotel she could tell he was keeping an eye on her, clearly he could tell she was not one to take charity, especially that of a stranger. It all felt completely surreal, a handsome stranger showing up her life when it all seemed hopeless offering to take her in. Now she just had to wait for some life or death situation to begin a bizarre adventure she would no doubt get roped into, but such a thing was truly impossible.

The hotel that the remaining members of the Joestar family was residing in was, to say the least, a lavish palace. They had gotten the entire fifth floor all to themselves, each room was lined with gold leaf furnishing and beautifully woven Persian rugs carpeted the floor. There were chandeliers, but with the gorgeous sunlight drifting in through the windows there was no need for artificial light of any kind. Sharena assumed the cost of leasing a single room here for a couple nights would translate to enough money in her time to pay off her first semester of college. At first it frustrated her at how filthy rich the Joestars seemed to be, however after meeting with the matriarch, and grandmother of Joseph, Erina Joestar, whom immediately offered both Smokey and her a room to sleep in along with inviting them out for dinner, she realized they weren't the snobby type. If anything Mrs. Joestar was the sweetest and most giving woman she had ever met, a rarity in most everyone of her time.

The aging woman was elated to hear that Sharena was an archaeologist, apparently her deceased husband had been one himself, and despite dying young had written a thesis and been well known during the late 19th century for his groundbreaking research on the Aztec Empire. She made the assumption that he was the grandfather Joseph had spoken of who could use hamon, she wondered if the older female knew what the power was or not, she decided not to mention it during their short conversation; which was ended off with Erina stating the four of them would be leaving within the hour.

The matriarch had a maid show her the way to a bath where she could clean herself up, which made Sharena rather embarrassed realizing she had probably looked horrendous in front of her hosts. When she arrived in the lovely lavatory her worries were confirmed correct as a full body mirror in the corner showed the dirt covering her white dress shirt, the greasiness of her short locks, and the shine of her skin from it being drenched in sweat. Removing her body from the large white tub was not an easy task as she couldn't remember the last time she had taken anything other than a shower. It was very slippery with the water coating the sides, and she felt rather helpless as she lost all form of feminine grace each time she attempted to escape the porcelain prison.

Suddenly, the door creaked open, and her aquamarine eyes flashed towards the door. For the thousandth time that day her face looked almost sunburnt from the blood underneath her cheeks. "Joseph!" she screeched, leaning back into the bath, hoping to hide beneath its snow-colored barriers.

"What? I came to see if you were alright, Granny wants us to leave soon." He responded, not even a tad of remorse in his voice for bursting in on the unsuspecting and nude girl.

"Why would you just burst in on me like that? And then acting so nonchalant about it! Have you no shame!" she ranted from within the pearl bowl. Her only response from him was a deep and amused chuckle.

"I'll get one of the maids to come help you," he chortled before shutting the door and leaving. Fuming, the girl jumped from the tub and stumbled to her feet. There were cream colored towels on a cushioned bench. She grabbed them and quickly dried herself off. A young red-haired maid walked in carrying a dress on the wire hanger in one hand and panty hose in the other.

"Ms. Erina requested I give you this dress to wear out with us along with these hose, I believe she has jacket downstairs for you as well. She also deemed it best that you wear your own shoes if that is alright with you." The ginger requested.

"Oh- um, of course, uh- thank you." She stuttered out, surprised once more at her host's kindness towards her. "You can put that over on that side table."

"Do you need any other assistance, Miss."

"N-no that's alright." She stated, politely shooing the maid off, who bowed and quickly left with a nod. Sharena dropped the towel, allowing it to slip off her peachy skin and to the floor. She quickly and efficiently put on the clothing presented to her. The pantyhose were black, but transparent and went well underneath the dark blue and white polka-dotted dress. The sleeves were capped, with a sweetheart neckline that showed off just the top of her cleavage line, however the skirt was a little more modest reaching past her knees and flaring out just a tad because of the tulle on the underside of it. She had no problem with the garment and was surprised that it fit relatively well. The archaeologist donned her previous riding boots that seemed much cleaner than they had been and drew a comb she found through her champagne-colored hair.

Completely forgetting about her dirty clothes on the floor, she waltzed out of the room, shutting the door to the refined terracotta bathing room. The maroon carpeted hallway lead down to a staircase where she could have sworn she saw a nicely cleaned up Smokey, and a jacket-less Joseph, the sight of the latter making her face go red -whether from anger or humiliation the world would never know- and she began a half stomp toward them. Her heavy footfalls easily drawing their attention to her approach. Both turned to her, Smokey's eyes going a little wide at how she had cleaned up but, the young Joestar just gave her a smirk.

"It isn't nice to stare." She addressed them, though her attention was on Joseph who just snorted and motioned to a coat rack nearby.

"Get a coat it's cold out." He commanded, only to end up walking over and grabbing one for her himself. It was a white bolero made of a thick wool it seemed. He stepped behind her and opened it so that she could put it on. Accepting his offer she stepped back, placing her arms into the sleeves as he pulled it up for her, his fingers lightly grazing the supple nape of her neck as he did so sending warmth through her veins. He leaned his face down until his lips almost brushed her ear as he held her shoulders as he whispered something that sounded a lot like "sorry for earlier", though she doubted she had heard him right with the overwhelming sound of her blood pumping through her ears. Joseph retracted away from her before grabbing his own ruby jacket he had worn previously.

The triad departed the hotel to meet with Erina who was sitting on a bench, simply observing any passersby. She was humming a tune when they drew near her, but turned her head as her grandson called out to her almost in song, "Granny Erina! Sharena is done and I am starving so let's go~!" The older woman glared at him for being so forward and what she deemed ungentlemanly. He simply averted his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck in self-consciousness, chuckling nervously.

"Watch yourself, Joseph. Now, let's be on our way, would not want to be late for our reservation," she chided, before strolling off with the confidence of one much younger.

Sharena and Smokey shared a look, each with an eyebrow raised at the supposedly frail old woman's actions and attitude. The brunette giant just trailed behind the older woman without inquiry of any kind.

Their travels through the town led them direction of the brasserie for their evening meal. At some point the youngest Joestar had become the self-appointed leader of their little tour, walking far ahead of the group, though his followers had a feeling he had no idea where he was actually going, but their qualms remained silent. Suddenly, Joseph being completely unaware of his surroundings walked right in front of a taxi as it sped down the road. The driver nearly hit the bumbling giant, stopping just in time before hitting him.

"Why don't you look where you're going, dolt!?" the capped man hollered out his cab's window. "Go find a dog to lick your butt clean!" he continued throwing out more insults from the safety of his automobile, clearly not noticing as Joseph gritted his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows in irritation, "Now get out of the way, you-!" his demeaning speech was interrupted as his victim walked towards his open driver's side window and grabbed him by the collar. The man finally noticing the size of the giant Brit he had picked a fight with, clearly regretting his decision immensely. The brunette pulled the man out through his window before putting a hand to his ear as if hard of hearing.

"Hello! What was that?! Could you slow down!?" he half questioned, half shouted at the man.

"Say that again so that I can understand your gibberish! I might have to smack you!" he threatened, making the charioteer even more frightened. Luckily, the car-driver's savior came forth, however they were in the form of a seventy year old woman, a dark-skinned teenager, and a blonde archaeologist.

"Jojo!" the old woman rebuked, "What are you doing?"

"G-granny Erina!" Joseph stuttered, remembering that his grandmother had watched the entire confrontation.

"What are you doing to that man?" she inquired again, her voice hiding the slightest bit of ice beneath it. Her grandson immediately released the man, feelings of dread filling his body.

"Well, uh- you see…" his mouth threatened to run dry under his elder's scrutinizing gaze. His green eyes shifted around looking for an excuse as he rubbed the back of his head. Looking back he noticed Sharena motioning towards the car with her finger, her actions remaining undetected by anyone else from her place behind Erina. His eyebrow raised slightly as his head turned to where she was pointing. His stare meeting with a yellow car door where in black read: "Taxi!" he yelped out, moving to open the door to the backseat for his grandmother, "I was just grabbing a taxi!" he announced, as if it had been obvious from the beginning. The blonde female who gave him the idea chuckled behind her hand, amused with how he tried to play the whole thing off, he truly was an interesting guy...

"Oh, Jojo, you're so thoughtful." Erina replied, taking his offer for a ride to the restaurant instead of having to walk the rest of the way. "Climb in, Smokey, Sharena, would you mind sitting up front with our driver?" the blonde nodded as she watched the young teen and the Joestar elder get into the car. Joseph let out a sigh of relief at avoiding what would have been a brutal scolding for losing his temper. He walked around to the other side and opened the front passenger side door for her. Sharena helped herself into the seat and moved out of the way so her hulking friend could shut the door for her and get into his own seat in the back with Erina and Smokey.

While she was a little put off being asked to sit separate from the three in the back, she ended up feeling rather glad she wasn't stuffed in the back and forced to involve in idle chit chat; she much preferred listening in. She wanted to learn about the peculiar Joestar family, made up of nothing but a grandmother and her grandson facing the lonely and war ridden world all alone. She waited for someone to say something in the quietness of the automobile. As usual, Joseph couldn't just keep quiet and was the first to speak up.

"Granny, Speedwagon called us all the way to New York, right?" he inquired. The blonde girl recognized hearing the name earlier that day and also from Professor Schon, who mentioned they were funding their research or something, but her only other association of the name was with a classical rock band. She assumed both were completely irrelevant. Joseph continued to speak as she contemplated the name, "And now he's off on a trip? He's unbelievable."

"I'm sure his oil business has him tied up." His gran replied without missing a beat. After that silence filled the car again, if only for a couple minutes. Once again, the only living male Joestar had more to say as he opened his mouth again.

"Hey Granny…" he began innocently, "Was Speedwagon really Grandpa's best friend?"

Sharena's ears perked up at the mention of the hamon user and archaeologist Erina had fallen for so long ago, "That's all? Really?" he questioned.

"What are you implying?" she answered stiffly. The blond archaeologist gazed into the back seat, only to get a view of Joseph's clearly mischievous face; she became rather worried of what absurdity would be spewing from his filter-less lips next and thanked Erina for telling her to sit up front.

"Well, he's single, right?" he probed, his eyebrows raising and his head resting in palm. "And you're a widow." She knew exactly where he was taking this conversation and simply turned to face the front, preferring not to watch what war would certainly occur in the backseat. "I just wondered if that was the extent of your relationship."

Erina's eyebrows knitted tightly together as she raised her umbrella, preparing to strike her impudent grandson for his implication. "You scoundrel!"

Smokey attempted to squish himself as close to the door as possible, hoping to avoid the older woman's wrath. Each swing full of strength only shown when one questioned her loyalty towards the husband she loved and lost so early in life. She had no care for those caught in the crossfire, nearly hitting the driver once or twice and causing the cab to swerve as she beat the fear of God into Joseph.

"I was wrong! Please forgive me!" he yelped, "I know Speedwagon is just loyal!" Sharena just sat forward, pretending she wasn't smiling like a fool at what was unfolding from her invulnerable position just out of the way of the action. She decided she very much liked the Joestar family, and hoped that when she got back to meet one of their later generations whenever she got back to her own time.

After Erina calmed down the cab ride was both tranquil and informing. The two Joestars educated their guests on the family's history. Apparently the patriarch had died in an accident at sea, and the child Erina had been carrying along with a baby girl who survived had gotten married. Their son was Jojo, but war and disease claimed them both when he was very young. Their companions decided that the reason they both showed such inexplicable kindness to them both, despite being both strangers and unrefined, was due to a deep-rooted loneliness. However, it was this same generosity and care that got Joseph into trouble, such as when he fought off the law enforcement after Smokey.

The conversation ended when they arrived at a clearly refined and sophisticated eatery. Smokey was the first to hop out, opening the door for Erina to exit when he did so. On the other hand, her grandson stayed back to pay the driver, leaving out his own door nearest the street. The previous two waited as Joseph opened the front passenger side for Sharena, who stepped out, thanking the brunette for his assistance. His grandmother nodded in approval at his gentlemanly action before marching into the restaurant ahead of the other.

When they entered the hostess took their name and upon realizing they had a reservation he motioned for a young man to take care of them straight away. The handsome waiter showed them to their seats, his white and black uniform pristine and a pleasant smile on his face. As the party of four sat down, however, a large and terrifying looking man growled out, "Waiter!"

The staff approached the man, clearly intimidated by his deep voice and disturbing appearance consisting of razor sharp teeth, black lightning bolts for a mustache, and the yellowish-green spiked hair.

"Y-yes sir?" the server stuttered out.

"Are you the one who let that stinking animal in here?!" the creep griped, shoving spaghetti into his mouth as he spoke. "His odor is ruining my appetite!" The Joestar family and their guests looked to the man, realizing he was in fact referring to their dark-skinned teen of the group. "You shouldn't let those kind in!" he spewed. Smokey looked rather uneasy and embarrassed at the insults flung his way. Sharena's mouth was agape, both disgusted by the man's appearance and lack of manners, but also at his utter disrespect of their friend in the middle of a public place.

While the grunt slandered a customer, the head waiter had replaced the original one, who had most likely left because he wasn't sure how to handle the situation properly. "Sir, as long as the bill is paid, we are happy to serve anyone," the senior waitron stated coolly.

"What?! You mean you just let pigs come in a feast on their own kind in here?"

"I- I uh I'll just be on my way then…" Smokey woefully mumbled. As he began to get up from his seat two arms held his to the table, urging him to remain in his place. One was a large, lightly tanned from Joseph, the other dainty and pallid from Sharena who was using much less force than her tougher counterpart. The boy gingerly sat back down, still wary of the dozens of eyes on him. He felt defeated, but his muscled cohort was having none of it. The young Joestar prepared to defend his friend's honor, clearly fired up as he got into a challenging battle stance.

"Jojo!" Erina called out, her fingers laced in front of her face.

"Granny, you aren't going to stop me, are you?" he questioned, his anger ready to boil over onto the racist man.

"No," she answered icily, "People can have their opinions- but he insulted our friend in public." Her expression hardened before she continued. "Take him out! But do mind the other customers."

The other men at the ugly mafia man's table glared at the other group, especially at Joseph who had a shit-eating grin on his face and was raising his fist up.

"I was hoping you'd say that." He stated. His opponent's chair scraped across the floor, teeth clenched as he stood up.

"Looking for a scrap boy?" he growled, cracking his knuckles with a deadly smirk. The bull of a man reached into his front jacket pocket, most likely to get some sort of weapon. Sharena's eyes widened in worry, she prayed that Joseph's hot-headedness didn't get him injured, or worse. Her fists clenched as she readied herself to back the brunette up if need be.

"If you're looking for your brass knuckles…" Jojo began, his hand pointed out towards his enemy, "There not in your coat pocket! Check your back pocket." The Englishman chided. Everyone gasped as the ruffian did as commanded, only to freeze upon realizing it truly was in the back pocket of his pants. Confused and fuming, his greasy mitts tightened around the cool metal of the weapon.

"Now you'll say, 'How did you know that, bastard?!" the Brit predicted while pointing his index finger at the gangster.

"How did you know that, bastard?!" the man snarled right on cue, only to wail in surprise at the prophecy's fruition.

"By the abrasions on your right hand, I knew you fought with brass knuckles." He explained rather condescendingly. "Plus, the blood on your shirt is definitely not yours, meaning you recently came from a fight!" The thug lifted his jacket to inspect the crimson stains covering the breast of his shirt. "And since the blood is on your shirt, I know you took your coat off during the fight! So when you removed your brass knuckles, you had to put them in your back pocket!" His reasoning and deduction were flawless, which caught Sharena completely off guard from her seat at the table. She had known him less than a day, but had believe she had the young Joestar figured out. Yet, here he was proving her wrong and being abnormally clever when she had assumed he just did things impulsively like she did, she was completely incorrect. Her train of thought came to screeching halt as she listened in to his continued mind games. "Now you'll say, 'so what you little punk?!" Joseph foretold once more, gesturing to his opponent with a single finger. His target put on his brass knuckles, his hair and mustache bristled as his challenger flaunted his above average intelligence.

"So what you little punk?!" he barked before pulling his fist back and swinging a hulking arm forward. Time seemed to speed up as the goon wailed on what looked to be Joseph. Scarlet liquid splattered all over and a certain blond archaeologist held back an outcry of her friend's name that was lost on her lips as she tried and failed to get out of her chair. "You like that?! Don't get uppity with me!" Just as sudden as the assault began it ended, the results surprising everyone in the room other than the Joestars.

"I'm afraid you missed. What are you punching?" an unharmed brunette badgered. It was revealed to all that the thug had been beating into a sturdy wooden coat rack rather than his intended target the whole time. "It wasn't me you were pummeling so happily." The gangster screeched in pain, finally fathoming that his actions had injured him dearly, the splinters of the hat rack had nestled themselves deep within his hand. Unused to the sudden shock the brute tumbled to the floor, all the while his adversary stood unscathed, his defense mechanism locked tight within one hand.

"I can predict anything your simple brain can come up with! Don't you get that, moron?" the mindless customers of the restaurant clapped in amusement as if it was a dinner theater of some sort, clearly not understanding the true wit and might of the great Joseph Joestar. It was hard to say that Sharena Perry wasn't impressed or ever so slightly enamored with him, mostly because that would have been a lie as his heroic actions became gutsier and gutsier. Especially as the goon's boss stood up from his seat and approached their table, and the Brit immediately readied himself for another scuffle. Much to his dismay, however the mafia leader wanted nothing more than to apologize.

"Please forgive my underling madam." He affirmed, "You're Erina Joestar aren't you? I do a lot of business with Mister Speedwagon. He told me all about you in London awhile back. I'm glad to meet you." The dark-suited man kept moving closer as he continued, "I heard something through the grapevine that hasn't appeared in the papers yet. That Speedwagon was killed." Joseph and Erina's faces expressed their horror at the revelation, each freezing in place. Sharena's eyes widened, recognizing the name from their previous conversation, she knew this information was of the dire.

"Are you serious?!" Joseph demanded, closeted panic barely showing in his voice.

"Rumor has it his killer was a Tibetan monk." At his words the older woman began to shake, cleared disturbed, as some form of support to his grandmother, the brunette steeled his gaze.

"A monk? Straizo?" he questioned.

"The bodies of Speedwagon and his team washed up along a river in Mexico." At his words both Smokey and Sharena stood up from their seats, suspecting a fight of some sort between the two men as the air became thick. "No one knows why they were killed or where the monk went off to."

"I think I might know." The Erina indicated, her trembling becoming even worse. Everyone looked to her, curious on what she had to say. The blonde to her right went to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It has to do with something Speedwagon said long ago. It must involve Dio and the stone mask…" she trailed off forlorn.

"Jojo! Watch out, that guy is a Mafioso!" Smokey cried out unexpectedly. "Don't trust anything he says, it must be a scheme!"

"Believe what you want." The don grunted, pulling out a cigar and placing it between his lips. He plunged a hand into his various pockets to locate his lighter, eyebrows furrowed.

"Try your breast pocket if you're looking for your lighter!" Joseph notified the man, once more a finger being jabbed in his direction as he spoke.

The mobster's eyebrows raised in alarm, but before he could truly show his shock, the brunette man grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close. "Smokey, I appreciate the warning, but I believe what he says. Information is money to these guys, and I am sure that info is worth a lot to the mob, so I believe it, But…" He went quiet for a moment, before drawing back his muscled arm and upper-cutting his hostage who in turn crumpled into a heap. "Even if it's true, you can't just say something like that to Granny Erina. Don't you see how you've upset her! You're thoughtless!" he shouted, punching the man again, this time sending him into his original table.

His grandmother seemed in her own world, ignoring her grandson's violent actions. Her eyes were glazed over as she mumbled, "Events from fifty years ago are coming back to haunt us." Joseph came up behind her, he looked at the blonde who had was rubbing Erina's shoulder, understanding his request she removed her hand, the green-eyed giant replacing it with his own, this time on both her shoulders. He leaned down so he was closer to her range of hearing.

"Don't be scared, Granny." He lulled, his voice soft and loving, a turnaround from his normally loud and careless tone. "I'm here for you."

"No, Joseph. I'm scared for you." the spectacled woman admitted. "I don't want you to get roped up in this." She turned and leaned her head into Joseph's chest, his large white-shirt clad arms snaking around her to form a tight, yet gentle embrace. Sharena watched from her seat, her heart warmed by the connection of the two Joestars. She also was intrigued by how soft and compassionate he had become upon contact with someone he cared about, she was jealous, wishing she had someone to treat her with just the same care. These thoughts were quickly dispersed from her mind.

"I'll be fine. If it's my fate, I'll accept it." He declared, still holding her close. All the remaining patrons of the restaurant watched on his amazement, probably still thinking it was some sort of dinner entertainment...

 ** _That was a weird place to end it, but that's how the show does. Don't worry, I know this is a long and boring chapter, but it's a part we have to get through, the next couple chapters will get into the good stuff, don't you fret._**

 ** _Thank Morgan for the early update._**


	4. After All These Years

After the restaurant incident and a feast of decadent Italian cuisine, the Joestar party returned to their hotel room. The night had been full of idle chit-chat, something changed after the revelation of the mysterious Mister Speedwagon's death, and Sharena could clearly tell. As soon as they arrived back everyone went to their separate rooms to turn in for the night and though the goose-feather mattress was expensive, the blonde girl was restless. The fading of conversation that could distract her from her problems made her worry return with full force.

Eventually exhaustion did take her, and when she woke she half-expected to be back in her work room with the crumbled statue on the floor around her. Instead of being in her own time however, she was in a four post bed with the fanciest of purple silken sheets wrapped around her half naked body. The bright New Yorkian sun was peering through a slit in the curtains.

The girl tumbled out of her bed, groaning as she fell to the floor with a thump. She mentally discussed the plausibility of falling back to sleep, but when she thought she had come to a conclusion the door slammed open. For the second time in the past two days, Mister Joseph Joestar decided to just barge into a room she was scantily clad in.

"Granny wants you up!" he announced, his gaze fixated on the bed. He was fully dressed, but his chocolate-colored hair seemed even more wild than it usually was. He quickly realized she was in fact on the floor and not in bed, the linens she brought with her barely allowing her to retain the slightest modesty. The young male simply froze, his eyes raking over her form as a lecherous grin formed on his face. "We can't keep running into each other like this, people will begin to talk you know." He teased, a jovial sparkle in his eyes.

She wanted nothing more than to beat the hell out of him, or at least throw something, yet part of her wanted to avoid causing his grandmother any trouble after the occurrence the night before. Also, she was worried about how Joseph was taking the news, she felt he was hiding his true feelings to spare his grandmother. Though she supposed playing around with him would be harmless.

"Can't you just let this situation talk for itself? I'm clearly wide open." She retorted, lowering her speech to a sultry tone.

"Well, uh- um," he attempted to speak, but his mouth quickly went dry, his body freezing in place. She clearly had caught him off guard.

"What's wrong, _Jojo_?" she asked, putting emphasis on his given nickname. "Not good enough for you? If what I am saying bothers you, I can always be silenced with a kiss." Joseph was unsure how to respond, he had always been a flirt, rarely ever getting a response, yet this blonde was meeting his teasing with full force. He at least needed to get the last word in.

"Maybe after breakfast, _love._ I perform much better on a full stomach," the handsome brunette retorted, "There are clothes for you in the dresser, see you for tea." As soon as he finished speaking he shut the door.

The blonde girl let her face drop onto a pillow and yelled in exasperation. She now understood that Joseph Joestar was truly impossible.

She ended up raising herself from her position on the floor and approaching an oak chest of drawers adjacent to her bed. She found a white dress shirt, a purple vest with gold buttons, black dress pants, and a red cravat. Once again, the Joestar matriarch impressed her once again, providing very closely fitting clothes for her in such short notice. She decided to ask her at some point how she came about the articles. There was an ivory comb with blue flowers painted on it that lay on the nightstand. She grabbed it and stroked it through her short golden mane, parting her fringe slightly off center.

Subsequently, breakfast was both morose and quiet. The tone was expected after the previous day's events, even suffocating those not directly affected. And as quickly as was possible for him to, Joseph stood up from his seat, grabbed Smokey by the arm, and left, slamming the door behind him. The awkward silence thickened as several hours passed. During this time Sharena couldn't bring herself to leave Erina alone with her thoughts, so she remained in the parlor, mutely staring at her reflection within a cup of cold tea.

The archaeologist had sworn that she would die of boredom, her compassion for her elders could only go so far. Her prayers were answered well past noon when a nearby door squeaked open, the person responsible closing it gently behind them. Her head whipped around half-in alarm and half-in excitement for anything to distract her. She was pleasantly surprised to see Joseph. The young man's expression was stern, but his emerald eyes softened as he approached his aged grandmother, clearly worried about her fragile state. He approached her slowly, tenderly placing his large palms on her shoulders. Sharena watched him lean down and whisper something in the matriarch's ear before helping her up out of her chair; escorting her out of the room.

Several minutes later the brunette reentered, his shoulders slightly sagging as he revealed just a hint of his true mental state. Sharena sympathized with him, but was unsure how to express it. Timidly, she stood up and walked towards him, reaching up to place her small hand on his upper arm. The slight pressure on the limb drew his attention, he looked down, the blonde stared up at him with aquamarine irises that reflected the incoming sunlight. For some reason the sight of them made his breath hitch and his heart beat marginally quicker. He quickly averted his gazed and let out a hearty chuckle. Removing his arm from her touch, he placed them above his head and stretched. The girl took a step back and opened her mouth to question where he'd gone and where Smokey was, but he beat her to the punch.

"Smokey had some things of his own to do, I'm sure we will see him around later. As for where we were…" his voice became a little more serious as he continued, "I was gathering information on Speedwagon's death and possible killer."

"I see. Why did you come back then? Did you find what you wanted?" She queried.

"No, the bastard left no trace, but I may have found one lead, and you're coming with me."

"Can't you get Smokey to do it?"

"Like I said he's busy. So let's go, I mean, unless you'd like to go sit with Granny some more and sip tea for the rest of the day?"

"I like Ms. Erina, but I don't think I'm too much help here anyways…"

"Exactly, come on." This time it was a command and he wasn't going to wait for her to refuse or agree. Joseph strode closer, and grabbing the female with one swoop of his giant arms, heaved her unceremoniously over his shoulder.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm disappointed, I expected some type of reaction from you," he grumbled, adjusting her just slightly as he walked down the hall and to the stairs. "But if you must know, the lead I found was from some workers down by the docs. They swear they had seen someone appear from thin air yesterday." Sharena grew rigid at his words, she wasn't sure whether to tell his efforts would be in vain or not. She certainly wasn't the killer, and there was no one else who could have been responsible for the sailors' sighting. Even so, he'd call her crazy if she was to claim it was her doing.

"Then let's get going," she sighed half-heartedly. "Might as well use all the daylight we can." The only response the woman received was a nod and they were on their way…

"Color me surprised that you were able to carry me like that for several miles through downtown without getting tired or dropping me," Sharena praised as her man-taxi put her down at the entrance to the seaport. Joseph flexed, a grin on his face.

"How many times must you see the strength and cunning of a Joestar before you believe me, hm?" he chided with a wink.

The pair strolled along the port, asking everyone they could if they had seen anything suspicious. Most of their received answers were simply rude 'no's or some bizarre story about seeing a sea monster in the distance or some rare treasure being loaded off a foreign ship. Among the tall tales and whisperings, a few had told them about a man farther down the dock who swore he'd seen a person teleport right in front of him while he was working.

Naturally the pair went on their merry way to locate him, and after a good hour in the chilly winter air, did just that. Sharena immediately recognized him, and slightly hid behind Joseph, hoping to not be recognized. With her head tilted down and more form fitting clothes perhaps he would just see her as the brunette's sweetheart or something, or overlook her entirely.

Her human shield gazed back at her from the corner of his eyes, confused by her odd actions. However he would question her later, right now he needed to find Straizo or whomever was responsible for Speedwagon's death. The man was just slightly shorter than Joseph, but built like a brick house. He had a bushy ginger beard and green eyes much like his own.

"Need something, kid?" he questioned, staring up at the young Joestar. "I ain't got all day, spit it out."

"I heard you saw something truly bizarre yesterday, mind telling us?" the Brit replied back.

"All the guys tell me the chill was just getting to me, but I swear I saw the lass appear from nowhere."

"Oh, it was a woman then…" he trailed off, clear disappointment flooding his body.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure. I thought in the fleeting moments it mighta been a woman, but their clothes were meant for a gent. Who really knows, it was only a passing glance, though I believe they went off towards the city if you're interested."

Sharena visibly sighed in relief and reached her dainty hand out to grab the sleeve of Joseph's coat.

"I don't think he knows much more, do you want to go look around town as he suggested?" she whispered, standing on her tippy toes to be closer to his ear.

"For once, you may know what you're talking about," he chided as they turned to retrace their steps back towards the city, their walk covered in a blanket of quietness.

Although the blond girl felt a sense of relief knowing the man hadn't seen her well enough to even tell her gender. She would have too much to explain if her secret got out. Though she also was consumed by an almost guilty feeling for allowing Joseph to even come out here and waste his time in the first place. He was beginning to grow desperate and the way he had acted upon returning to the hotel, showing just the slightest bit of genuine grief through the way he was grasping at the smallest strings that may lead to information on the man known as Speedwagon.

Sharena was torn from her thoughts by a horrid growling from the left. The loud rumbling had nearly scared her soul from her body due to her previous distraction.

"Jesus!" she yelped as the horrid noise sounded once more, looking around for it's source. Her eyes soon met with the perpetrator, "Joseph. Tell me, when did you last eat?" she glared at his stomach accusingly. The brunette stared at her for a moment as the organ protested more; now, there was no way he could deny his guilt.

"Good grief, woman. I didn't know you were my mother." He responded, raising a thick eyebrow. He opened his mouth to continue, only to be interrupted by groaning. Sharena glowered at the young man, unamused with the way he simply ignored the problem.

"If I hear that one more time I will have no qualms with punching you in the gut." the woman griped, bringing a hand up to massage her temple.

"Ha! I dare you, It'd probably tickle if I felt it at all."

"How do you expect to find Speedwagon's killer if you don't take care of yourself!" she shouted, but she regretted just as the words left her lips. Joseph just stared at her, green eyes revealing nothing and his mouth ever so slightly agape.

"Let's go get food," he mumbled, starting to walk off without her. She stumbled after him, her face hanging in shame. She was ashamed for just throwing around the topic, but he was too stubborn to listen to her any other way. Then again, had just been patient with him, it may have gone better.

Remorsefully she followed a good ten feet behind the taller male, kicking the dirt, her hands held behind her back. He led her to a small diner back near their hotel, remaining reticent towards the whole situation. When they entered he simply held up two fingers to the waiter who quickly led them to a fancy looking table next to a second story window. The duo immediately looking to their menus rather than looking at one another.

"Order whatever you want, I have plenty of cash and you clearly have no money on you. " the male was the first to speak.

"Joseph-" she tried to express her regret, however a pretty waitress in a short uniform arrived, easily distracting the young Joestar with her revealing dress.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" the woman's voice rolled out, dripping with sugar directed directly at the brunette man. She adjusted her arms to accentuate her breasts, batting her eyelashes at the handsome eighteen year old.

"I'll take a tea, milk and two sugars, thanks." Sharena disrupted her, slightly annoyed at the other blonde's dallying. The waitress simply gave her a side glare before beaming at her male customer.

"Is there anything I can get you, sir?"

"Do you have those brown sodas in the glass bottles? Coca Coola, I think it's called?" he answered

"Oh! You mean Coca Cola, absolutely. If there is absolutely _anything_ else you need, don't be afraid to holler, _honey_."

"What a floozy," Sharena snorted as the bubble-headed broad trotted away, swaying her hips. Joseph didn't respond as he watched the mentioned lady leave. The archaeologist leaned forward and waved a hand in front of his face, "Earth to Major Jojo!" Lazily he looked back at her, adjusting so that his head was being supported by his hand, a bored expression on his face. "She isn't even that good looking get over yourself, plus who knows what kind of diseases she has," The blonde huffed. Joseph just raised his eyebrow, "If you don't start talking to me soon I may very well get up and leave, you'll never have to see me ever again."

"And where do you plan on going, hm?" he clicked his tongue, rolling his green eyes. The girl across from him let her head droop just a little. "That's what I thought, idiot."

The blonde remained quiet, the silence returning.

A different waitress soon arrived and handed them each their drinks, letting them know that their waitress would return soon enough to take their orders, and so the two picked up their respective menus and raked their eyes over them. "What are you getting?" Sharena suddenly asked, drumming her fingers on the table.

"I have no idea, whatever their special is probably." He held up the tri-fold menu and glared at the paper, "I may have had a slight idea of the menu at the Italian restaurant, but this French or whatever is foreign to me."

"Actually, I think it's Swiss."

"Swiss? So, like the cheese."

"No! Like Switzerland, haven't you taken geography?"

"Yeah, that doesn't mean I paid any attention, besides that is near Germany isn't it? Why in their right minds would Granny Erina or Uncle Speedwagon take me near that place right now?" She gave him a confused look, only for a light bulb to go on in her head.

"Oh, you are referring to the beginning of World War 2…" she trailed off, realizing it had yet to be referred to as such, "Ah- I mean, does that have anything to do with you being here?"

"We might have originally been visiting because of the old man, but I plan to stay here with Granny, she can't be in England and stressed out by all that's happening."

"And if the war comes to the States?" she queried, knowing that to an extent it would do just that.

"Maybe I'll even fight myself, just like my father…"

Sharena took a tentative sip of her tea, before nearly choking on it at what he said, "Drink your damn Coke before it gets warm." She groaned, not wanting to think of what might happen to her new acquaintance if he were to do just as he said. "What would you even do? Use your heroics to get yourself killed in some ridiculous show of bravery?" she grumbled beneath her breath, hoping he wouldn't say anything else about the subject.

"I want to be a pilot and-" he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes glued onto something across the room. His companion huffed, expecting to see some scantily clad woman, instead the Mafioso from the night before was there once again, staring down the brunette. "I'll be right back…" he continued as he stood from his seat and rapidly strode toward the gangster.

"Joseph!" she whined, being left at the table, while the few business men around her stared up from their papers to watch the giant Englishmen stomp towards the stereotypical Italian mafia man. The blonde huffed, allowing a palm to slap her forehead and slide down her face. This man would certainly cause his own death, if not her own. Though she continued to sip her tea and act indifferent, her teal eyes remained on Joseph as he went through his violent interrogation techniques. She was slowly beginning to realize he wouldn't listen to anyone other than his grandmother, and after her comments earlier, decided she'd lay off him for now, unless he became too out of hand, hence why she viewed the situation from afar.

The racketeer was clearly surprised to see Joseph as he approached, but he remained standing to greet him nonetheless.

"A pleasure to see you again so soon, Mister Joestar." The suited man greeted, his bodyguards immediately moving to get between their boss and the brunette giant. "Back down, boys. Mister Joestar just wants some information am I right? Well _kid_ , you can come to me during regular business hours, just like any other mama's boy and kiss my-"

Joseph grunted before throwing a fist at the insulter's mug, one of his body guards moved just in time to receive the punch in his face rather than his employer. The injury sent him flying to the side, only for the brunette's other arm to swing out and catch the don in the throat. "Sorry, that doesn't exactly sound like you giving me more information about Speedwagon, can we try again?" he jeered. His victim slumped to the floor, clutching his injured neck. From somewhere in the background the pretty waitress screamed, dropping her tray full of food and expensive dishes all over the floor. With a horrified look she escaped the room crying. Joseph just stared at her, too worked up to process why the woman had been so terrified of him.

"You dumb brute!" the gangster grunted in pain.

"Huh? Did you not understand anything I just said hm? See, I'm not angry yet, but if you don't give me the information I want to know, then I predict that the next hit will be the last thing you ever feel!" Jojo predicted, a grin on his face.

"Eat shit!" one of the body guards Joseph assumed had been taken care off called out. His boss's eyebrows collided in fear and nervousness, his wrinkles stretching smooth to properly express his terror. He had seen the man beat down one of his strongest underlings, and had heard rumor of what he'd done to the cops who had pissed him off.

"Silence you fool!" the Mafioso hissed, "Mister Joestar, as it has only been one night you must realize there won't be much, I didn't find out until just yesterday and I told you merely hours after." The thug reasoned. His captor was beginning to grow quite tired with how useless everyone he had questioned today, as they had been less than helpful, and fired his hand forward to grab onto the raven-haired man's collar, lifting him up onto his feet.

"I don't believe you." Joseph proclaimed, irritation behind his voice. Reeling back his fist once again, he prepared to pulverize the older male however, just as he was to connect, a figure bolted between them, catching his giant fist with a small, delicate hand. All who viewed the scene stared in shock, including the young Joestar, who was simply dumbfounded at his punch being caught by a girl. Had he not been so out of it due to his surprise he may have felt the slight jolt that went through him as she had grabbed his fist, he may have realized the reason the blonde had been able to do it.

"Joseph," her voice took on a nearly reprimanding tone as she spoke, "We've caused enough of a scene already, and it isn't in the good way like it was last night. He clearly won't divulge anything else, he's a sewer rat, just leave him be. Besides, I'm sure he knows nothing simply because he isn't _important_ enough, you can't expect someone _so low_ on the hierarchal rungs to know something like that do you?" Her aquamarine eyes flitted in the direction of the Mafioso, completely aware that pride was a tender spot among many in his line of work. "I'm sure the _Bohemians_ would probably be much more in the know anyhow."

Sharena had weaved her trap, and soon enough it was sprung by a strangled and angered shout from her prey. "Shut up, _puttana_ , you clearly know nothing! There is no information to give you because they didn't even find Speedwagon's body! I am not lying and I will not be shown disrespect by your _cagna_ , Joestar!" The don bellowed. He struggled to his feet, his bodyguards doing the same.

"Hook, line, and sinker!" Sharena chuckled, nodding her head towards her brunette companion. "Now, maybe we can go back to our table and order our food, it's a shame that your Coke probably isn't cold anymore. Anyways-"

"Those are them, sir! The crazy people who are attacking our other customers!" The waitress from before had cut off the archaeologist, an accusing finger pointed in their direction. The server had two security guards trailing behind her, each wielding enforcement batons. She had a look of terror as she glared down the two adults responsible for the mess in her workplace. The young woman viewed them as monsters now, especially the one who had sweet talked her so well. She was disgusted by him now with his beastly actions. "That animal of a man is the one who started it all! Please get rid of them!"

Sharena and Joseph glanced at each other, this wasn't going to turn out well if they stuck around "I got you information, so you can figure out how to get us out of this mess you originally created!" The female commanded her companion.

The security guards began to stalk towards the two, jeering smirks on their faces as they swung their batons. As they grew closer Sharena took a step back, growing more nervous as they approached. Her teal eyes went back and forth between Joseph and the enforcers. Realizing he was just kind of staring towards the waitress who now abhorred him, she nudged his ribs roughly. When he looked back at her she threw him look that clearly said 'what are you doing?'.

"There's only one thing left to do, Sherrie." Joseph began with a small grin.

"And what might that be Jojo?" She lifted a delicate eyebrow in question, ignoring her slip up in using his nickname.

"On the count of three" he began, raising three fingers "I will use my secret weapon, of course!"

A sort of excitement shot through Sharena's veins. To see him in action again sounded invigorating, and she couldn't help the smirk forming on her face. "Ha! That's right, you guys are in for it now! Show them Jojo!" The blonde gleefully exclaimed.

The surrounding guards all stiffened and readied their weapons as Joseph started to tally down. "3….2….." the archaeologist could barely contain herself as he bent his digits for the countdown. "…..1! Time to make a run for it!"

The letdown hit her like a ton of bricks as she gaped at the utter stupidity she had witnessed. On the other hand, the brunette wasted no time in hightailing it out of the restaurant, leaving Sharena to face their crimes alone. The panic and anguish of being left behind left a burning hole in her chest.

"That two-faced, filthy rich boy, son of a bitch!" Sharena yelped out as hands grasped each of her arms, pulling them tightly behind her back. "That hurts, bastards! You're just as bad as that Joestar screw off!" her grunts and squeaks fell on silent ears as she was lead out of the restaurant. Her struggles ended when the fresh air hit her. The autumn winds had picked up at this point, her lack of a jacket and the evaporation of her sweat chilled her to the bone. Tears had begun to prick at her aquamarine eyes and the feeling of betrayal became more and more severe. She had been a fool for trusting Joseph, for letting her craving for both research and attention from another human being blind her the way it had. Though she supposed his grandmother would get on his ass for leaving her, that meant nothing when she was being arrested in the place of a violent sociopath who had no idea of right and wrong, a no good motherfu-. Any line of thought or logic was thrown out the window right then; for what seemed like the thousandth time since they had met, she was amazed by a truly bizarre occurrence, played out right before her eyes, and of course caused by none other than Joseph Joestar.

The bumbling brute came tearing down the street, yelling incoherently as he approached to get everyone's attention. His arms and legs were rapidly pumping to propel his giant body through the crowd of people surrounding Sharena. The eighteen year old male rammed through several cops, knocking them down to the hard pavement. The awe of the crowd caused them to freeze up rather than try to stop the intruder, giving the brunette a perfect shot to his target. In an instant he scooped up the blond archaeologist who believed she had been left behind, straddling her in between his arms like she was his new bride. The female was confused, amazed, and most of all speechless. His strong arms held her tightly to him, he clearly had no intention of dropping her. The situation and closeness gave her a sense of calm safety that she hadn't felt since long before her sudden appearance at the docks.

His strong arms flexed beneath her as both their speed and the wind rustled her yellow locks. Joseph darted through the streets, dodging cars, people, and a stray dog or two as he went. Several officers came after him on foot, but the single car meant to take Sharena back to the station having got caught in traffic soon after its departure was slowed to a stop several blocks behind. Luckily for the escapees, it became apparent that law enforcement would not be catching up to them anytime soon, allowing Joseph to dip into a nearby café for refuge.

The bell on the door jingled as they entered, it was much smaller and definitely more casual than the fancy place they had been run out of. It made both the brunette and the blonde feel much more at home, having not been comfortable with more high class dining. As nice older woman was going around pouring coffee for the humble customers seated at booths and tables, many of them alone. Joseph carefully placed the former damsel in distress on her feet, her boots clicking as they hit the polished wooden floor. She looked up at him, meeting his smirk with the smallest of smiles.

"Thanks." She grunted, "But next time just take me with you when you escape instead or there'll be hell to pay."

"Who said there'd be a next time?" Jojo snorted.

"Knowing you, Joseph, there will always be a next time." The girl chuckled.


	5. Somethin' To Hide

Stretching her arms up over her head, Sharena let out a groan as her joints popped rather pleasantly. She had been at the corner café for near three hours now and the sun had long since set. Smokey having joined their party not long after they arrived was plopped down on a pulled-up chair, where he and her companion were now flipping through a catalogue. The blonde could only assume it was full of scams considering the only one the boys had shown her reminded her of an infomercial product, and so she sat there peacefully, just enjoying the calmness of the café, her mind adrift. This was of course until she began to notice two pairs of eyes on her. Moving her gaze to the two males she soon realized she could not meet their gaze, because it was on her chest. Her face burned crimson at the realization and their eyes kept moving from the magazine to her bosom. Joseph's eyebrows furrowed as he took another glance back at the catalogue and again at her.

Suddenly realizing her confusion and the increasing redness of her face, the young man flipped around the catalogue and pointed at an ad for bra pads. "Is this what women use to make them so perky and raised?" He asked with an almost innocent curiosity.

A loud screech rang through the cafe as Sharena's chair skidded back. She stood and glared at Joseph, face still red and opened her mouth to speak: "I honestly expected better from you, especially in public," she fumed. "Mrs. Erina would have a fit if she was here." Before anyone else could react the blonde was headed towards the door to leave.

The young man in question jumped up soon after, about to demand to know why his question caused such a problem — inevitably to admit defeat and beg her not to tell his grandmother— but just as he crossed the floor he suddenly stopped. His gaze shifted to the large street-facing window and his eyes narrowed. Without another world he pushed passed Sharena and through the door.

The blonde's eyes immediately met Smokey's, all animosity now replaced with utter confusion. Their gazes drawn to the window where they could just barely make out Joseph circling an onyx-haired male.

Outside Jojo had confronted the former monk known as Straizo, who was now rejuvenated in both body and mind by some dark power. The young Joestar had a feeling he knew what was going on now. Straizo's presence confirmed the story he had pieced together about Speedwagon's disappearance and, or death.

"Don't play dumb with me, bastard." He growled, his previous words doing nothing more than giving the other man a fang-filled smirk. Barely holding back tears at the sight of the one who caused his paternal figure's demise, Joseph was ready to go all out on him, but was interrupted.

"I don't care if we're in the city, Jojo. I will take your life before you awaken your abilities." The monster let out a gruff chuckle to accompany his words.

"Is that so?" Joseph replied. Unbeknownst to Straizo and the patrons in the cafe, the young brunette reached behind him for a weapon he had taken from one of the gangsters from earlier that day. Without another word he pulled a military-grade machine gun from behind his back and fired with no sense of what he was aiming at other than Straizo. Bullets tore through flesh with ease, decimating the cafe's open-faced window and inner furniture. The impact pushed the black-haired man back into the cafè where a dozen shocked civilians were now running around and screaming.

Sharena had bolted behind the bar when firing first began, at some point several other women had also joined her, one of them grabbing onto her as if her life depended on it. The blonde supposed that her shock-induced silence made the other young woman assume she would get her out alive, or they saw her sitting with the crazy man who had just destroyed most of the bistro and assumed she could grant them some sort of refuge when the rampaging Joestar continued his attack.

Immediately after the barrage of bullets ended, Sharena's head shot up, her eyes just barely going over the half destroyed counter. Joseph stood outside the ruined building, tears spilling over as he shouted, "I've been waiting for you," he addressed the corpse, now pinned to the opposite wall, "Not that I expect you to die from just that," he trailed off before shouting again with renewed vigor, "But that was for Speedwagon!" he went silent for a moment as if contemplating something before stepping forward, tears now gone from his cheeks, "To blast your head off," the brunette continued "The light of the sun, and hamon. Those are the three ways to truly defeat you, right?" He left the question hang in the air for a moment before shooting several more clips into the hunk of flesh from outside.

From within the bistro, the blonde's heart had nearly broke at the devastating look on Joseph's face. She wanted to get up and comfort him, before he began to make his way into the shop, expression steeled and she remembered that he had just riddled a man with bullets and destroyed someone's place of business with no care for who got in the way. The idea in and of itself made her shrink away ever so slightly at his approach, while the woman who had a vice grip on her shirt screamed in terror, giving the other patrons their cue to begin an uproar.

"The killer is coming in here!"

"Someone help us!"

Ignoring the people's cries, Jojo stepped through the window, kicking chairs and tables haphazardly out of his way as he approached Straizo's mangled form. He was stopped in his tracks and Smokey, the brave soul that he was, gently called out his nickname. Joseph looked back at his friend for a moment, before reaching down to grab the cup he had been drinking from earlier, hoping it was still warm. The mug broke immediately at his touch.

"This is really bad, Jojo," Smokey spoke up again.

"Huh? Yeah, the repair costs are going to be pretty high." The young man answered casually.

"No, Joseph," a feminine voice admonished. Sharena had gotten up from her hiding spot with the little bit of courage she had and joined the two males conversation.

"She is right, you shot a person!" the youngest of the three exclaimed.

"A person?" the brunette wondered, "Oh, you mean Straizo?" he hummed. No one dared ask what he meant by that as he leaned down and grabbed a previously fired round, with a rather odd dent in it, "What is going on here? These bullets I fired are so oddly shaped..." he trailed off, his facial expressions turned grim as he spun around to face his friends.

"You two, take cover outside, I really hope he was a person, because then everything can be solved with me going to prison!"

"What are you talking about?" said Smokey, "You've finally lost it."

Sharena was too shocked to say anything, she had no clue what was going on around her, but it certainly wasn't good. Joseph had most likely killed a… man? At least she thought it was human, but Joseph seemed so convinced that there was more to it, and she was getting an eerie feeling that he may be right.

"Just go!" he huffed, "I don't need you guys getting hurt." He grumbled out the last part under his breath and pushed Sharena and Smokey towards the damaged storefront. The aforementioned looked back at him, her eyebrows knit with concern.

The Joestar paid her no mind as he approached several screaming females, cradling his now aching head, "Stop screaming so loud before I silence you with my mouth," he threatened, the girls immediately went quiet and dispersed just as fast when he suggested they run away.

His female companion, having not left the cafe snorted rather loudly at his insinuation, rather unimpressed with Jojo's behavior, only for him to turn around to face her, "That goes for you too, run away now or I'll kiss you with tongue!" Her face lit up as if aflame and she quickly joined Smokey outside without argument. From their new location, Joseph's friends looked on as he neared Straizo, both more than a little on edge.

Sharena's eyes went wide as she saw the bullet riddled monk rise rather unnaturally from what should have been his final resting place. Several people in crowd around her noticed as well and did not bite back their wails of fright as well as she had. The figure finally stood nearly straight, body filled with bullet holes as his crimson eyes shot open.

The atmosphere became even more tense as the monster before her stretched his muscles, except instead of his body cracking from relief, it was the sound of lead being forced from his wounds.

"Wha-" Joseph gasped. The blonde realized then that the young man may have had some idea of what was going on, but not as much as he previously let on with such confidence. "So this is a vampire?" he continued almost breathless.

"All those shots and he still isn't down?" Sharena whispered more to herself.

"I must not have hit his head," Joseph spoke, seeming to reply to her private rambling.

Straizo stared at him for a moment, a look of concentration on his face as he sized the young Joestar up for what he was worth. Originally he intended to be free of him rather quickly, but now he was beginning to wonder if the effort and strain on his newly rejuvenated body was worth what may occur next. He tilted his head to look around the bumbling oaf, making sure there were no threats within the crowd, he did not want any other surprises tonight, no matter what the stone mask had done to enhance his body. He knew it would be improbable to defeat both Joseph and one of his friends before sunrise. He was unimpressed with the other teenager he had been hanging around with, but the female, there was something about her that he recognized, a certain-

"Excuse me, but you should have your attention on me at the moment!" Jojo exclaimed, repositioning his machine gun and aiming it at the vampire. His finger quickly pulled the trigger, but nothing came out other than an incessant clicking.

"Jammed?" Straizo goaded, his full attention back to Joseph. "You see this is the main difference between Dio and I," he began, "His failure was simply that he enjoyed his abilities too much, he tried testing them mid battle, giving Johnathan just the right opening to defeat him." he spoke matter of factly, hand caressing his chin. "But I am not the same, I have no care for learning my limits, I can always do that at a later date, for now I will finish you off with the ability Dio used to kill your grandfather." Straizo's tone seemed to grow into a bloodlust-fueled excitement:

"It is the same used to deflect those bullets."

Sharena could do little more than watch as Joseph desperately tried to get his gun to work. She wanted to run, half of her saying to go further into the fray and assist her new companion while another more sensible side begged to retreat and never go near the Joestar family or their dealings again. Her mental meandering drew her back from her newfound reality. Even if she avoided the decision now, she realized that what Erina had said was true that Joseph's fate — the fate of the entire Joestar line— was tied up in some bizarre curse and there was no doubt in her mind that even if she chose to stick around, nothing would ever be anything close to normal. While the thought of adventure thrilled her, the idea of Joseph's premature death, or even her own left a bad taste in her mouth.

!

She looked back to the action, eyes widening and her mouth opening to scream at the sight before her. But no sound came as a fear she had not formerly known gripped her throat. Where Joseph had seemingly once stood quite healthy, now stood a swaying figure who had a holes in both his throat and head. She was too far back to notice the lack of blood, or hear the tinkling of spider fractures in glass. She could only register that the one person who had even the slightest clue of what was going on was either dead, or on their way.

Falling to her knees in front of the crowd, the tears sprinkling from her eyes went unnoticed, freezing on her cheeks from the sheer chill of both the air and the situation. Try all she may, she could not regain control of her brain and lungs. Her breathing became ragged. Both she and all of these civilians that had witnessed this battle would no doubt be silenced as well, they were done for, she could do nothing in her current state, she needed someone else, anyone else. Teal eyes shifted to Smokey beside her, his shouts like silence to her distracted ears. The young woman knew the teen would be little use in anything rougher than a short skirmish, she just couldn't risk it. Not that she could do much herself, without the support of someone who knew what they were doing, she was as useless as any regular person.

A deep hum made Sharena look up, her gaze meeting cold crimson. Straizo was staring at her over his shoulder "I worried you may become a slight problem as well, but from that pitiful look on your face and lack of action, I see the effort would be wasted on you."

"Your next words will be: Without that bumbling fool you are as harmless as a baby, go!" a familiar voice chimed in.

"Without that bumbling fool you are as harmless as a baby!" Straizo gasped, realizing both the correct prediction and the fact that a dead man was speaking to him.

"Joseph," Sharena breathed, a heavy weight leaving her chest. While she still did not have the will to move off her knees, a new feeling of solace rushed through her body, Joseph was alright, and she had no doubts that the battle was about to turn in their favor.


	6. Can Do

Straizo assumed that coming to New York to dispose of those who may take offense both to the death of Speedwagon, and his newfound immortality would be child's play. Eliminating a spoiled boy barely out of schooling? Simple. Killing an elderly woman with no defenses? Simpler. Yet here he was, staring at one of the humans he had not yet deemed a threat; with holes in both his neck and forehead, simply standing there with a knowing smirk on his face. He had made a severe miscalculation and now he was paying for it with pure irritation from the insects that now saw fit to challenge him.

"Your next words will be, how can he live with a hole in his head? Go!" the young Joestar predicted.

"H-how can he live with a hole in his head?" Straizo muttered to himself, only for his eyes to go wide in realization.

"Take a look at the face of the clock," Joseph announced, raising an arm to point at a clock above him.

"A mirror?" The vampire's irritation skyrocketed, realizing that the wretches had been such a distraction that he had not noticed mirror trick.

"Nice of you to notice, Straiz-oaf," the enemy taunted. Straizo turned around to prepare to receive or give an attack but was too late. The former monk was met with a war cry of: "I'll knock you out of the park!" and the butt of a gun to his face, sending him flying across the room. As if the yell of "Shoot!" was not humiliating enough, he heard a muffled laugh from outside, the blond brat from before had a hand over her mouth and a glint in her eyes.

Straizo hid his smirk, and within the split second before he would be decimated by a hamon-fueled blow, he grasped his scarf and pulled it over his head. Although the action still forced his head back against the wall behind him, but that would heal quite easily now, and he was relatively unharmed as the Joestar brute barreled towards him, seeming rather pleased with his futile maneuver. He feigned defeat, letting his body go limp as a small cheer came from outside the Shoppe.

"Now, I hear hamon can melt vampire faces," Joseph mumbled at first, only to loudly proclaim, "Let's see my results!"

Straizo allowed him to grab ahold of his scarf, removing it from his face. His foe froze just long enough for a surprise attack. The onyx-haired monk felt the building of energy behind his eyes until a bolt of plasma shot from his pupils right at the Joestar brat. The awestruck look on his face was priceless as he dashed back, bending his body in an attempt to dodge the attack, but Straizo's stingy ripper eyes were much too fast, and a satisfying gush of blood spurted from Joseph's neck.

A female voice from outside yelped out in worry and drew his attention to her position. She leaned to see what had happened, the bulky Joestar having blocked her way. The vampire's smirk grew wider as her eyes gleamed with terror, her body going rigid at what had happened. She unfroze for a moment as her gaze caught sight of his scarf and her fear turned into an almost awed fascination, the girl knew more than she let on it seemed.

"He, He's completely fine," his attacker stuttered out, "Like nothing happened." He stared back at the young punk's blond companion as if she could give him an explanation. Straizo guessed that she could have benefited the Joestar in this battle whether with information or directly in battle, but she was too much of a coward to do anything. At least if it came down to it, she wouldn't attempt any heroics to stop him.

The vampire was quickly growing bored as he was interrupted by the Joestar's not so inner musings concerning his grandmother. It was time to end this. With little effort he stretched his limbs and spoke:

"You would become a deadly foe if left alive any longer. A secret before you die," he raised the cloth to draw the fool's attention to it, "While perhaps the white-livered harlot behind you could reveal this herself, I doubt you will live long enough for the explanation so I will make this simple enough even for you to understand. There is an insect in Southeast Asia, known as the Satiporoja beetle. Over 30,000 of their tiny stomachs were dried and woven into this scarf. It conducts hamon better than the human body and disperses it like an electrical ground." he clicked his tongue, making a show of flipping the scarf back over his shoulder, "You underestimate a former hamon master." with his last words he returned his crimson-eyed gaze to the one called Sharena, gauging her reaction to the revelation.

"Wow, that's really something," the Joestar whistled, moving his body to break Straizo's line of sight. He was unsure if the brute had intended to distract his attention to save the blonde, or if he wanted an opponent that gave all of their attention to the battle at hand.

Even though he had been letting himself get distracted, it would end now, at least that was his plan until Joseph began speaking again, "Do you really expect a street-smart person like me to rely on the gimmicks of Hamon alone?" he taunted.

Straizo prepared himself for the worst.

It was safe to say that Joseph was rather self-satisfied as he pulled the string that would set the remainder of his plan into motion, the declaration of his speed easily flowing from his lips. The sound of the pin releasing from the grenade caused his amusement to show. Without another word he turned towards the window and fled for cover. His ears just barely picked up Straizo's confusion turned frustration as he denounced his, 'pitiful trick'.

"You should spend more time in the city, monk." He happily exclaimed in his escape, "Look at the grenade you've tossed away!" Just as he hit the deck beyond the major blast range he heard Straizo's curses mixed with the sound of the explosion. He looked around briefly to locate Smokey and Sharena, while also checking for any shrapnel caused injuries. The blonde scooted towards him, he was unsurprised that she could not stand up considering the excitement they had experienced thus far.

"I-," she hesitated, "I think you got him," that was until she turned her head back towards the carnage, leading Joseph to do the same.

The trashed cafe now let off an eerie vibe, and as Joseph stared deeper within he understood why. The vampire had survived his attack. The majority of his body was splattered all over the tile while larger chunks of him— such as his left arm— were beginning to slowly but surely morph back together. While he had a feeling that the grenades would only slow him down, he expected the recovery to take much longer, but one could never be too picky.

From beside him he heard Sharena toss herself in a direction opposite of his own and retch out her guts at the carnage. Joseph was rather understanding as she did so, the gore was a sight to be seen. He really couldn't blame her, but he also knew that the battle was far from over. There wasn't time to comfort her and certainly none for the luxury of human reactions. This became even more clear as an arm began moving towards a forming pile of flesh. He placed a comforting hand on Sharena's back as his eyes scanned the crowd for Smokey. The two of them needed to relocate so that the following confrontation did not require even more damage control. Joseph could deal with a destroyed cafe, but if someone got hurt, he could never forgive himself.

As soon as he spotted his younger companion he waved him over. They both met between the crowd and Sharena spared a glance towards a reshaping vampire in the broken-down cafe. Joseph took a sharp intake of breath as the flesh quickly retook his former image, though without clothing.

"H-He, that _thing_ is a monster." Smokey sputtered out.

The young Joestar decided to remain silent.

"Please tell me you have some way to beat a monster like this, Jojo," the teenager allowed his anxiety to mix with his words, his voice increasing in pitch with each syllable. Joseph took this as best time to put his master plan into effect.

"I do." the brunette declared, a cool confidence overtaking his aura.

"Really? You do?" Smokey seemed a bit doubtful, which made Joseph wonder where he had given the younger boy any impression other than that he always had a plan.

"Yeah, I have one last card up my sleeve." he replied with ease.

"One last card? W-what is it?"

"Look at his legs, they were blown to smithereens and haven't healed yet. That's our ticket out." He pointed out, his eyes drifting towards Sharena's still crumpled form for a moment before staring down at Smokey as he replied.

"And our last ticket?" the younger man asked, the slightest hope coming through.

"As you can see, my legs," he gripped his thighs, making a bit of a show of the muscle mass rippling beneath his pant, "are in perfect shape, so I will use them," Joseph announced proudly.

"Use your legs? How?" the look of amazement on Smokey's face reminded him of Sharena earlier that day and in any other situation he would have laughed, but time was running out.

"To hightail it out of here, Smokey!" Joseph immediately turned around and began to make a show of him running away in the other direction.

"I really can't believe this guy," Smokey said looking back at Sharena in concern before seeing Straizo and running after Joseph, "Wait up Jojo!"

' _Ignore Sharena and the rest of them, just follow me, Straizo…'_

Sharena's head was thumping and her throat burned. Her brain vaguely recognized the yells and retreating footsteps of her former party, but nothing up until now really registered. She struggled to sit up from her fetal position, only succeeding to sit up by using a nearby wall to prop herself up. Her head lolled back, and she blinked away the wateriness of her eyes.

Some of the crowd remained in front of the cafe, a few even daring to approach the crime scene, but the lot of them ignored the blonde's presence altogether. It was only as the adrenaline wore off that she began to realize just how cold it had become as the sun went down. With a shiver, the young archaeologist stumbled to her feet, she was unsure if she should try to locate Joseph and Smokey or not in her condition. Then again, she wasn't sure whether she really wanted to be involved in any more of this bizarreness that had occurred within the past two days. She quickly shook the thoughts out of her head, deciding that she would be safer focusing on her present until the monster Joseph was facing had been taken down. Despite her best efforts, her next mental images involved the possibility of her party not being on the winning side. The mere idea of such a being running loose in New York City, much less existing in the world at all, was not something her now calmed down brain could every allow to happen. She just hoped that she was wrong and would have no need to step in at all.

"What a scoop!" a high-pitched voice reached Sharena's ears before a flash went off several feet from her. Luckily, she averted her eyes quick enough to avoid destroying her vision. The short-haired female allowed a grimace to form on her face, when the other woman's attention focused on her, "Hey, miss!" she shouted, trotting over, "You were with the perpetrator, right? Would you mind if I did a quick interview with you? It would really help me out, you see I am an aspiring reporter and this whole situation could be my big-" Sharena was much too tired to be polite with the woman, especially considering the severity of the whole situation and simply shut out the rest of the reporter's words.

Suddenly ice began to run through the archaeologist's veins as the feeling of eyes on the back of her head set in. She glanced around, eyes squinting to view through the pitch-black night. The wind picked up and blew her choppy fringe in front of her face, blinding her for just a moment, but within those crucial seconds the growls of a wounded animal came nearer. Her conversation partner continued to speak normally not realizing the danger.

Sharena's vision returned just as she saw a looming form behind the reporter, and in a quick move of adrenaline-induced heroism, she pushed the other woman out of the vampire's range. A strong hand made its home around her tender neck, the mere force of the contact nearly knocking her down. More pressure than she deemed necessary was being applied to her throat, but she understood why, he was cutting off her breathing just enough, so she could not control of it, which meant any surprise attack later would be pointless. She expected nothing less from what she believed was a former master of Hamon.

"I failed to calculate any bit of bravery from you, but you are lucky I am in a weakened state, or I most certainly would have taken my intended target." Straizo hissed, red eyes flashing dangerously. Sharena grit her teeth as his grip tightened even more with his irritation, "But perhaps I can use you as a bargaining chip," he then went to a near whisper with his next words, "I have no want to risk my immortality if there is a simpler way to rid myself of that barbarian…"

Sharena would have responded if her oxygen-deprived brain could even process anything he was saying. Her eyes felt like they were bulging out of her skull and her lungs were starting to burn as Straizo just stood there, contemplating his next movements, her windpipe becoming nothing more than a stress ball.

"I was going to use the obnoxious one for sustenance, but now I think I have gotten a better idea." the raven-haired male mused, before tossing the blonde aside like a ragdoll. He turned his attentions back to the reporter who was stunned into silence until his crimson eyes met hers. However, before she got a chance to scream he clamped a hand over her mouth in a silent threat that he soon voiced, "Stay silent and you may live to see sunrise, whelp." The woman's teary eyes showed no sign of confirmation, but he knew she would be obedient, fear was a powerful motivator in such situations.

Sharena glared from her place on the ground as Straizo grabbed the other woman and hefted her over his newly reformed shoulder. She was torn in this moment, unsure if she should attempt a rescue or let Joseph take care of it later. She had no doubt that Straizo saw her selfishness in her will to live, and was hoping that the young Joestar would be the same to avoid a battle in his weakened state. But she also knew there was no way in hell that Joseph would let the vampire live after the havoc he wrecked in their first skirmish. Maybe she could throw in a last-minute surprise this time.

With adrenaline fueled bravery her breathing steadied and her body jolted into a standing position. Her eyes remained on his nude back, her spur of the moment focus letting her focus on nothing, but her next several movements. She staggered for a moment, allowing her sudden bravery to keep her breathing at a steady pace. She drew a desperate fist back, taking in gulps of air to fuel the attack.

A hand shot out and grabbed ahold of her neck once more, cutting off both the attack and her airway. The surprised yell that would have come from her lips became nothing more than a gurgled hiss. In a movement so fast, it was invisible to the naked eye, he switched his grip to be on the back of her head as he leaned down, his lips close to her ear, "I suspected your cowardice would keep you from doing something stupid, so I showed what little mercy I have left, yet here we are." His palm shifted once more, his lithe fingers holding Sharena up by her short blond hair. Her yelps of pain went ignored as her captor continued, "A single act of foolishness and a haircut do not a hero make." He let her collapse to the cobblestone street without a care. "Do you see this body," he motioned to his nude form as a Sharena lay in a heap at his feet, "I have been on this earth for seventy-five years, and these past few weeks of regained youthfulness are what I have worked for all my life."

Sharena tilted her head up to meet the prideful look in his eyes, she couldn't help the venom that spurted out her mouth next, "So you gave up a life giving and saving force for one of death and destruction? And to some selfish end?"

Shockingly enough, her words went ignored, his rant only picking up where he left off, "It is human nature to fear death, each having their own version of this fear. Yours is your cowardice, you don't want to die too soon, hence your preference to let your companion do the fighting," he smirked as the girl looked away in shame, "Mine was aging, to age is better to be thought of as just slowly dying. I despised it more than anything else." He allowed a foot to kick her cheek in what he deemed a light nudge, but by the way her upper body reeled back, he realized she would have a nice bruise at the very least, given she survived the night. "You see to overcome my shortcomings of fear, I had to give up everything. I started at my family and my worldly cravings when I became a hamon master, but it was not enough to change me or my fate. It only delayed the inevitable as you do now. I had to give up that which I dedicated my life to, and not just my cause, but my comrades, my teachings, and most importantly my humanity. Now, I fear nothing, and even if I do not see the next sunrise I have done what other could not, I have changed the very core of my being. New saplings cannot grow without the nutrients of the destructive forest fire."

Sharena wiped blood from her lips and sat up, her body supported by her outstretched arms. "Are you telling me to become a monster like you?"

"Did you listen to a word I said? Or do you merely have the same attention span as those Joestars?" his only reply was a rather pitiful glare. Straizo briefly glanced around, pleased to know that most bystanders had run off in fear before they could witness his soon to be kidnapping. "Let's hope that for your sake and to prove I did not simply waste my breath, that you survive long enough to understand what I really mean, little sapling. Even if you still draw breath in the morning, the Joestar bloodline tends to have a destiny closely entwined with death, as do those who stick near them. Heed my warning, for I have seen firsthand what happens to those who follow alongside them..."

It was in that very moment as Straizo's words trailed off that Sharena caught his maroon eyes revealing the bit of humanity left within him. Even in her current position she could not help but feel an ache for him, she knew the look well, he had lost someone. She wanted to know more, it was only a natural curiosity, but as a tender 'Who' came out of her lips, he glowered her way and took a menacing step closer.

"Twilight is dwindling and so is my patience," he snarled. Before the blonde knew what was happening he reached down and hauled her up to her feet. "Any more of your pitiful heroics and I use you as my first test in creating thralls,"

The humanity was gone from his eyes, now replaced by the cold glare of a monster. Shivers went down her spine as his fingers jammed into her upper arms, a silent threat to make good on his promise. She gulped down her craving to at least scream as he moved her under right arm, his forearm tucked under her stomach. He carried her that way with ease as he moved towards the reporter from before, who had passed out before she could escape. Straizo grabbed her just the same, but under his left arm this time.

Sharena could do nothing but accept her current fate, but even if she had wanted to fight back, she couldn't. Her body being position just so that as Straizo bolted through the city his arm would knock the wind out of her with each jolt. There was no doubt that it would have been painful if she wasn't so disoriented.

Luckily for both her stomach and head, their journey was short lived. She was harshly dropped onto the red metal of a bridge, though the other female was now being held tightly against his nude form. Sharena averted her eyes, somewhat thankful that she had simply been dropped instead. Despite her being up so high and on such a thin rail, her nerves assisted in keeping her in a false state of calm. That was until she took a gander at the abutment below, the realization of her predicament of being dozens of feet in the air made her head dizzy and her stomach tight. For the moment she would actually have preferred being anchored down by the nude vampire's grasp. The blood rushed into her head as her body tilted past the edge.

At the last second a pale hand gripped hold of her shirt collar and hoisted her to her feet. "Remain still," Straizo scolded, placing her down on an area much lower down. The change in height helped, although the incline of the surface was still of concern.

Just as she was beginning to clear her head and wonder where Joseph could have gone to, she heard voices below. No one had any business walking around at this time of night, especially on a roadway bridge. By process of elimination it had to be Joseph, and by the sound of the speaker's voice Smokey was with him. For a split second she was nearly jealous at the fact that she had been left behind by Jojo despite him taking Smokey along. However, now was not the time for such frivolities. Especially with the raised voice of a Joestar now clearly reaching her ears:

"That sound isn't the river, Smokey. Look up!" The loud voice carried to where Sharena and her captor stood, Joseph's finger ascending to point out Straizo's hiding place.

The vampire shifted forward, revealing himself and the captive reporter in the dull yellow street light. Sharena remained behind the onyx-haired man, attempting to peek around him, but was quickly swayed away when Straizo glared at her over his shoulder. She cringed away and returned to using him as a shield, but that didn't stop her from eavesdropping.

"This woman is my hostage, try to run and she will die," Straizo's announcement was joined by the reporter's pain-filled screams, the other blonde only remained in her place, guilt bubbling in her stomach. "I don't even know her you moron!" Joseph hollered.

"Let's just run, Jojo," Smokey begged.

"This is a test," Straizo began, "If you run now, I will know you are no threat," he stopped for a moment and adjusted his position, giving the girl behind him an actual view of her companions, "I need some time to heal and will not pursue you." "You would not take revenge for Speedwagon. But if you come up here here after this woman and after me, your personality will be clear. I will even return your companion to you," with his statement Straizo stepped aside to reveal a bruised up Sharena. "Think of it as extra incentive, especially since I know she won't be in my way unless you choose to be."

Sharena gave Joseph a brief wave and mouthed a brief 'sorry'. The brunette's eyebrows furrowed, perturbed that one he purposely left behind to protect, had experienced the opposite of protection. Straizo noticed his growing fury, he seized the blonde woman with his free arm and heaved her in the Joestar's direction.

While she most likely would be fine after the drop, Joseph still leapt forward to catch her flailing body. Sharena yelped as she fell into place between his large arms. Just being close to someone other than Straizo was a huge relief. She wanted to yell at him for leaving her, but also thank him for protecting everyone and for catching her. She could do neither as he leaned down close to her ear and murmured into her ear something along the lines of 'it's a bad time, but I'll properly apologize later. He placed her gently on her feet and gave the blonde a light push in Smokey's direction. She immediately took the hint and trotted to Smokey's side.

On the other hand, Joseph was struggling to keep cool, he knew getting worked up would be counterproductive, but he would be lying if he said that a portion of his brain was begging him to just knock the vampire's block off. "Not much a peace offering if you beat her up, eh? What makes you think a woman I just met would get me to do anything you ask?" his remarks went ignored as Straizo opened his bloodsucking mouth again:

"You and yours could pose a great threat in the future if left unchecked, so I will eliminate the both of you here and now. You have five seconds before I kill this one here," the onyx-haired man motioned to the blond journalist he still had captive. "Climb up here and fight me or run off with your comrades. Choose now, Joseph Joestar!"

"I wouldn't fight for a hag like that even if she was my sweetheart." the bulky Joestar shouted back.

"Whether he is bluffing or not, that is just rude," Sharena commented cynically from the background, facepalming as she did so.

"I'll kill her by ripping her jaw off," Straizo asserted, gritting his teeth. Exasperated by their superficial response to his threat, he shoved several fingers in the woman's mouth and gripped her chin.

A nervous chuckle escaped Joseph's lips, "Would a master of Tibetan hamon really do such a cruel thing to an innocent girl?" he seemed to ask himself the question rather than the resolute Straizo, whose response was to rip a tooth from the woman's skull and fling it. The pearly white landed at Sharena's feet, half of it covered in blood and tissue, she covered her mouth and turned away in disgust. Her repulsion only multiplied as the pained hollers of the other blonde echoed around the large metal structure.

"That bastard is serious isn't he…" The Joestar trailed off.

"I will show no mercy."

"You fiend," Joseph's knuckles clenched tight, his teeth gritting similarly. He was clearly about to snap, and frankly Sharena was shocked he hadn't already. "Straizo!" he shouted, ripping his jacket to pieces in rage. "You'll pay for that!"

"Yes, but who will pay for that designer jacket you just destroyed?" Sharena contemplated under her breath.

"Miss Sharena, how can you joke at a time like this?" Smokey scolded back in disbelief. If anyone else heard her comment, it went ignored.

"Your humanity is truly gone!" Joseph announced, springing up to meet Straizo on his perch.

"You try to act cool on the outside, but on the inside, you are full of fire." the vampire replied, dropped the reporter behind him. With a yell of "Taste this" his eyes lit up with a plasma-like force, which soon ripped through the air in a pink-colored beam in Joseph's direction.

Smokey held his breath and Sharena took a stumbling step forward, eyes wide in a panic. Both soon realized the foolishness of their worry as Joseph produced two shot glasses from seemingly nowhere. With ease he charged up his hamon through the ounce cup to deflect one of the eye rays. The plasma shot right back like a bullet through Straizo's forehead, the force of it entering and exiting his skull making a resounding crack. His aim with the other glass was just slightly off, and the beam went through his shoulder, the heat of the attack immediately cauterizing the wound. Joseph recoiled in discomfort but remained on his guard as Straizo fell straight backward.

"I deflected your shot with my hamon," Joseph stated, a certain serious in his eyes, "I knew you would aim for my head, so it was rather easy to intercept."

In an instant Straizo was back on his feet and charged the young Joestar, but he was ready and took in a deep breath. His entire body emitted a sun-like glow as his bloodstream filled with rippling energy.

"Apologize to Speedwagon in hell!" he shouted. A single hamon fueled punch to the face was all it took to send the weakened Straizo reeling. Eyebrows knitted in indignation, Joseph stepped away from Straizo, "You can sleep peacefully tonight, granny-" he looked back at his new friends, more specifically the female, "-all of us can."

In the meantime, Straizo, barely able to to think straight from the blow to the head went flying over the bridge. With the last bit of strength, the vampire had, he dug his fingers deep into the concrete, attempting to ignore the splitting headache he now had. He couldn't afford to fall into the rushing water of the bay, or to face the deadly hamon of the Joestar at the moment, but soon enough his grip faltered. Luckily, before he could process his fall, a sizable hand grabbed hold of his forearm and hoisted him up just enough to let him dangle over the edge, without the possibility of accidentally dropped him.

"Why save me from falling?" Straizo queried, "I may still have the power to blow your arm off." His one good eyes glared down the brunette, only to catch the curious teal eyes of Sharena, who peered around Joseph's bulky form. He stared at her briefly, her response nothing more than a disappointed frown.

"Shut up and try it, I'll punch you with the other." Joseph stated, a certain resoluteness in his voice. "Now give me an answer, why did you just throw Speedwagon's body into the river?" the brunette raised his voice with each word and his expression growing crosser. "There is something sketchy about this whole thing. What aren't you telling me."

"Joseph-" Straizo began, "-you are like Jonathan in every way," The vampire let out a light chuckle with his next words, "Except for one thing, you are so hot headed and impulsive, but that tendency to stick your nose into everything for the sake of adventure and justice, that is a carbon copy."

"Stop making stupid comparisons and tell me!"

"I will reveal to you what circumstances you have entangled yourself and those you associate with," his last words were spoken pointedly at Sharena, "but your curiosity will be your undoing as it was Jonathan's."

"What 'circumstances'?"

"Everything will fall into place in due time, but it will begin with the man in the pillar." Straizo announced, a certain sadistic glee gleaming in his good eye.

Sharena tried to hold back her loud gasp and steady herself as gravity fought to drag her half-limp body backwards. Part of her realized that her work with the sophisticated carving in her own time was connected to this 'pillar man' Straizo had mentioned.

Joseph shot her a brief look over his shoulder, but upon feeling his grip grow loose from lack of concentration, he immediately focused on his current goal. Although the questions he wanted to act Sharena in private had begun to grow, he remained silent on her reaction, for now.

"Keep that one around, or at the very least keep an eye on her, there is a recognition in her eyes that may become of use in your upcoming battles," Straizo mused.

"Could you be any more ambiguous, bastard? What the hell are you talking about? What is this man in the pillar?"

"I made sure their bodies were carried away by the river because of _him._ " The vampire's crimson eye went hazy as if recalling the event, "Like a plant sucking nutrients from the soil, that thing, he absorbed the blood of the men I killed. It was ghastly, that is why I dragged the bodies out to the river. But even so, his awakening is close at hand, after two millennia in hibernation" Suddenly, Straizo began to take labored breaths, his formerly unused lungs expanding with an unseen energy as he continued, "Joseph, you will encounter him soon and you will finally understand-" the vampire paused once more,"-the truth of the pillar man and the meaning of evolution!" His voice rose in pitch and volume as if in excitement for the Joestar's terrible fate, "It is as if your destiny was written by God himself!" Cracks formed upon Straizo's pale skin, a lustrous glow shining through each, his body was deteriorating.

"Is that hamon?" Joseph's eyebrows furrowed at the light breaking through the vampire's skin. "You've channeled it through your body?" he shouted in disbelief, finally realizing the onyx-haired man's intentions.

"I regret nothing. Brief as it was, these days of descending to a youth-filled hell were far superior to withering away as an old man! Regaining my youth for this small amount of time was the greatest ecstasy I could experience!" His body began to crumble away much more rapidly, his limbs becoming only dust under the radiant power of his hamon.

"Straizo, wait!" Joseph cried out nearly flinging himself over the side of bridge. He grasped haplessly at the dust that had once been the vampire's arm, all of his questions not having been answered.

"Farewell to you both!" Straizo's voice reverberated through the darkness. Before he even hit the river below his body exploded in a sunrise of color that matched the rising daybreak.

Before anyone could get even a heartbeat in edgewise, Straizo let self-produced hamon wreck through his body, magma-colored light consuming every bit of him up to the hand Joseph had still been holding. The Joestar straightened himself, his shock quickly melting into anger as he beat against his chest like an ape. His frustration was palpable even after, neither of his friends felt they should even attempt to console him, and just allowed him to grieve for all that had happened on his own.

Soon after the sunrise, Sharena and Smokey helped the reporter down from the scaffolding of the bridge, the two of them escorting the nearly hysterical woman off the bridge and onto a side street along the river. The journalist refused to speak to either of them, preferring to just keep her head in her hands and weep. That was until Joseph finally got himself together and decided to join them, complete with his social graces.

"You're fine now. What's your name, anyways? I'll walk you home." The Joestar offered, a big grin on his face as he approached the crying reporter.

"Eh, Joseph, maybe let her be you know? She has been through a lot, maybe we can just call her a taxi when she is ready." Sharena stepped towards him, hand raised to keep him from spooking the terrified woman.

What happened next came as a shock to all as the now furious reporter punched Joseph square in the nose Joseph reeled back in pain with a shout. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"You called me a hag you scumbag!" the woman griped, her fist raised to hit her again.

"Wait, what? I did?" The brunette ran a hand through his head, a surprising bout of bashfulness marring his features. He looked to his darker friend for corroboration.

"I don't remember your exact words, but it was something like: 'I wouldn't stick my neck out for that hag even if she was my sweetheart," Smokey confirmed.

"Seriously?" he asked again, except this time he looked at Sharena for her input.

"I am afraid so, Joseph." Sharena spoke, averting her eyes so she didn't have to see the begging look in his eyes for her to say something different.

"That's not right, why would I say that about a babe like-" the brunette interrupted his speech with a yelp of pain. The so called 'babe' had kicked him in the shin, even without hamon the reporter brought the down, grasping at his soon to be bruised knee.

"Don't you remember what you said, you bumpkin?"

"You cu-"

Sharena wasn't sure if it was the rudeness to a fellow woman, or just the fact that she didn't care to hear what was about to come out of his mouth. All she needed to know was that her fist hit Joseph's head with enough force to shut him up, and she felt a lot better afterwards.

The reporter immediately began to scream. Her small hands gripped her jaw, reminding everyone that she had in fact had a tooth ripped from her skull. "The sense of pain that your terror had dulled is back."

The archaeologist stepped forward and put a comforting hand on the other woman's shoulder. Reaching into her back pocket she produced the woman's tooth, handing it to her. "Before you scream again, take this to a place called Perry's Healers, if you introduce yourself as a 'friend of the band' they will get this fixed and it won't cost a thing, alright? I think it is right outside of the city, or find them in the phonebook, they might make house calls still." The journalist suddenly sprung up and grabbed Sharena into a tight hug.

"All these brutes around you and you are still such a darling, oh dear. Trying to save me before and now helping me like this, thank you!" she praised.

Her shouts towards the archaeologist pulled Joseph from his thoughts, his gaze drifting towards the embraced blonde's. The reporter was soon escorted back towards the city, leaving Sharena and Joseph alone for a brief few moments. Without a word the two began their own trek over the bridge to the more urban area. The uncomfortable silence finally got the better of Joseph as he spoke first.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Huh?" she answered a bit confused. Sharena looked herself over for a second and remembered the bit of injury she had sustained with Straizo while Joseph was running off. "Oh, no, I mean yeah I'll be fine, just some bruising probably, if that. I'm actually rather surprised that I'm not seriously injured, I guess there was a bit of that monk outlook still left in Straizo." She continued, her teal eyes looking up into his green.

"I thought that leaving would have avoided that kind of thing," he admitted, turning away to avoid her gaze. It was safe to say he was embarrassed that she had been injured due to his own misjudgment.

"Well there is really nothing to fret over, I'll be alright."

"That's good, because to be honest with you I am much more worried about the 'Pillar Man' Straizo mentioned." he began, hoping there would be something she knew that she would reveal to him. Her silence revealed more than her words would, she either knew nothing very useful, or still was unsure what she knew at all. There was no reason for her to withhold anything to serious anyways, at least that was what he currently believed.

Sharena could tell Joseph was hoping for her to reveal some damning piece of evidence about this pillar man, but she really knew next to nothing, probably less than he did, so she stayed silent, praying that he wouldn't pester her any further about it. To her pleasant surprise, he didn't bring it back up, but what he said next nearly knocked her off her feet.

Without any care for who was around, the Joestar pulled two airplane tickets from his back pants pocket and shoved them in the poor girl's face with a shout: "Sherrie, let's go to Mexico!"

Her only response was to stand there dumbstruck and wonder what exactly she had gotten herself into…

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited, the feedback really keeps me going. Hope everyone enjoyed the longer update and the plot really rearing its head. Thanks again for reading, see ya!**


	7. Only the Young

"Yes Misses Joestar, I understand." a young female assured through the black receiver of a pay phone, "Oh yes, Misses Erina, I'm sorry, it feels very awkward calling you by that. Of course, I did try to stop him, but he definitely won't listen to anyone when he sets his mind to it." She paused much longer this time, her ears listening to the voice on the other end, "I understand, I will definitely stay with him, keep him out of as much trouble as I can."

Sharena hung up the bulky phone with a huff. The young woman's arm was straightened out, leaning her weight on the oak wall of the phone room. The past forty-eight hours were some of the most exciting, and terrifying, she had ever experienced. Joseph may have taken all of it in stride, but things akin to vampires, deadly battles, and last-minute trips to Mexico weren't the usual for her, or any sane person for that matter.

Immediately after declaring his intentions to go out of the country, Joseph insisted that they leave straight away. She assumed he meant by the end of the day, but rather than leading her to the hotel his grandmother was staying at, he took her to an airport and they left immediately from there.

"Joseph!" she shouted, recognizing his bulky form perusing out of a small shop, she approached him. "I thought you said you were going to find somewhere to take a nap?"

"Huh?" the Joestar looked around for a moment until emerald irises met aquamarine, "Oh Sherrie. About that,"

"What were you doing in there?" she asked

The brunette held up two paper bags with company logos on them, "I know we left New York before we could stop for clothes or anything, so I bought some."

"I see, thank you I guess." She grabbed one of the bags Joseph held out to her and took a quick peek to find two boxes in them.

"Now tell me what you were up to."

"I was at the long-distance phone booths making a call."

"Oh right, you probably didn't have time to make your family aware you were leaving," he reached a sizable hand up to scratch the back of his head, "I should probably contact Granny Erina too, huh?"

Sharena froze for a moment, with the last several days flying by in such a whirlwind she really hadn't put much thought into her family or what might have been occurring at home with them. The girl wondered if she was considered missing her own time and if so whether her family had even tried to find her, they hadn't really stayed in contact since she moved out, but her mother still called once a week.

Unbeknownst to the archaeologist, a good deal of the color had drained from her face, an odd expression replacing her usual calm exterior. Joseph almost wanted to ask what was wrong, his own mind coming up with possible reasons for her reaction. In the end he decided she would tell him whenever she was ready and dropped the subject.

After nearly a minute of silence, both parties lost in their thoughts, the female tensely spoke up, "Yeah, yeah I gave them a brief gist. And if you want to speak with Misses Erina I suppose you can, but I called her myself and she seemed rather calm and collected, but I feel she may actually be furious with you." A grin forming at Joseph's expense.

"I'll call her later, I need to figure this whole situation out. Then again, you'd think she would be used to this, Speedwagon and I used to go on sudden excursions all the time. Then again, he isn't here anymore is he?" It was more a question then a statement, and the blonde could only reach up and give him what she hoped was a comforting touch to his upper back. She had never experienced such a loss and wasn't exactly skilled in empathy. She was an archaeologist, they dealt with century-old corpses, so there were never any living relatives to comfort. Giving his shoulder a light squeeze she gestured towards a place where they could change.

"Maybe we should be on our way, the faster we take care of this, the faster you can return to New York and help Miss Erina out. She is being greatly affected by this too." she pleaded. He didn't respond with any more than a movement of his eyes and furrow of his brow. The archaeologist adjusted her grip to his wrist and lightly tugged him towards the private lavatories. "C'mon, you'll be back to normal soon enough, let's get changed."

Astoundingly Joseph listened to Sharena and went into the bathroom to change. The blonde did the same and was pleasantly surprised by the outfit picked out for her. It was a lime-colored ankle length romper with spaghetti straps. There was also a peach bolero with ¾ sleeves that it was much too hot to wear normally. It was an odd color combination, but then again, she didn't expect someone like Joseph to be completely up to date on fashion. The girl may not exist in this era ordinarily, but she had a feeling that these flashy colors weren't exactly common for this one too. Either way she freshened up in the powder room and walked out with the jacket draped over her bare shoulders.

As she pushed open the heavy wooden door and strode out she noticed Joseph was standing there, his green gaze scrutinizing her. With a sudden surge of self-assurance she gently ran her fingers through her dark blond hair and did what she hoped was a confident strut his way.

Joseph stood off to the side, his body clad in a brownish yellow, short-sleeved bomber jacket, a seafoam undershirt, and black pants. A pair of motorcycle goggles were holding most of his chocolate bangs out of his vision. As Sharena walked out of the dressing room he couldn't help but to stare a bit. While he had seen her in a dress, she mostly wore loose pant-suits, so the tighter fit of her current outfit flaunted the curve of her waist and hips. Also, with her arms mostly exposed he could really see that her arms were fairly toned. It was clear that she had once had an intense musculature. He assumed the girl had once performed intense training but had stopped relatively recently. As his mind began to wander into her life previous to their meeting, he had to cover his mouth to avoid guffawing at her expense. The blonde in front of him was clearly trying to be alluring, but the way she pushed out her hips and the way her arms rested on her sides reminded him more of a strutting chicken. It was a bit of amusement he desperately needed to keep moving.

She must have noticed him trying to hide his chuckling, because soon after her walking pattern changed. Her legs immediately moving more naturally. Joseph couldn't help but grin so large that his eyelids closed. She trudged over, expression downcast and cheeks flushed.

"Let's just get going, okay?" the blonde exhaled.

"Of course, milady hen," Joseph teased, motioning to the exit with a bow.

"Did I really look like a chicken?" Joseph had to turn away, still fighting a smile, "I did, didn't I? Dear God, I'm an idiot." she grumbled, hiding her humiliation behind peachy hands.

"I'm glad my personal shame brings joy to your previously depressed mood." A large palm encompassed her head, ruffling her dirty blond locks, but received no verbal response from the male. With a frown she followed behind him, easily reaching the exit. They both immediately regretted leaving the enclosed building. The arid heat of the desert became promptly apparent to them. The sun beat down with a vengeance, it felt as if the ball of heat was specifically targeting the group.

With a palm shielding her eyes from the Mexican sun, she almost missed the bronzed gentleman positioned alongside a military-grade jeep. He probably was only around forty, but from living in a place where the sun was so abundant, he had the wrinkles of a wise elder. He was holding onto a worn sign with the word "Joestar" on it.

Sharena paused for a moment, as she remembered that the vehicle he guarded was not officially produced until at least another two or three years. Then again, the Speedwagon Foundation tended to possess things they shouldn't have rather easily. She kept forgetting that the person whose killer they were hunting ran an institution she had dealt with in her own time. The run-ins were often unpleasant for her. The archaeologist recalled when she and Professor Schon had to quite literally beg to be allowed to examine the lifelike statue they found at the foot of the Andes Mountains in Peru. It was beyond frustrating that they swooped in and took it with little more than some government contracts being shoved in their face.

Joseph lifted an eyebrow at the fuming woman beside him. While he wanted to say there was no way she was still upset about the whole chicken comparison, he wasn't well-versed on social graces. "Thank you for bringing us the car, it would be a pain if we had to walk across this desert on our own. Especially with the things I have been hearing about Uncle Speedwagon's death."

"It is the least I can do. You must avenge Señor Speedwagon, por favor." The elder pleaded, a thick accent on his English. His raised voice caught the female's drifting attention and her brow furrowed at the man's abrupt change in behavior. "He has done so much for my family and for this town." He admitted, his fingers laced together in a desperate prayer. Joseph only nodded in avowal, his own expression steeled, there was no need for the other male to request it in the first place.

She shifted from one side to the other, rather uncomfortable with the pleading aimed at her brunette partner. The was largely due to him praising Speedwagon immediately following her grouching about his organization putting their nose into everything. She supposed she never thought about the other more humanitarian things they did. It was as her parents said, she was too selfish for her own good.

"Sherrie let's go," Joseph called from the driver's seat. Once she didn't respond right away he laid on the horn, a horrid squeal coming from the vehicle. It worked as she turned around, eye twitching at the obnoxious noise.

"Cut it out, I'm coming." She snapped. The blonde climbed into the military vehicle, a strong grip keeping her jacket in place. Barely catching herself while she tried to reach for a seatbelt, having forgotten where, or rather when she was now. She quickly looked over at Joseph, concerned he may have noticed her faux pas. Instead she found him staring off forlornly. "Joseph?" she asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah." he spoke half-mindedly. His arm reached to the gear shift, not noticing as Sharena's limb shot out and grabbed ahold of his wrist, keeping the Joestar from proceeding further.

"Joseph, are you alright? I've driven previously so if you need time to process all of this. It is okay to be human sometimes, especially around those who care about you." the girl advised, sincere concern padding her words. The brunette said nothing for a second, before he turned toward the female.

"Alright? I am better than alright. The sun is high, and I have a good-looking babe like you on my side, how could I be anything, but thrilled?" he responded cheekily. He threw an arm over his companion's shoulders with a grin on his face. "Let's ride off into the sunset, Sherrie." he continued with a wink.

At first the blonde was taken aback by his rash actions, but realizing he wanted to catch her off guard she calmed herself with a deep breath. "It is ten in the morning, there is no sunset, Joseph." she replied deadpanning. "You must really be fine, or you wouldn't be saying such ridiculous things."

Jojo threw his head back and laughed. He started the vehicle and looked over to the girl beside him. His eyes twinkled at the sight her trying to hide a smirk at his antics. She turned her head to look at him, blond hair turning golden under the sun's light and aquamarine eyes putting the ocean's color to shame. Noticing his shameless staring, a light pink stained her cheeks and her half-grin became a stunning smile. Deep down he felt there was something he should say to her, but for once he couldn't think of how to phrase the little burning feeling deep in the pit of his stomach, in fact he couldn't even come up with a witty retort. He soon gained a bit of control of his brain, just barely getting out a quick: "Never change, Sherrie."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Jojo."

Hot was the greatest of understatements for the climate. There was no doubt in Sharena's mind that her once peachy skin was going to be a painful shade of red. The woman was really beginning to miss the chilly autumn nights of New York City, at least there she wouldn't have gotten skin cancer. She had to catch herself from asking Joseph for sunscreen several times.

As the hours ticked by and the whiplash from her partner's erratic, off road driving became worse than the sunburn, Sharena decided she had, had enough. "Joseph," she yelled over the loud engine and airstream around them.

"Hm?" he replied, his head switching between the road and the female.

"Do you have any clue where we are going." She questioned, glancing at the compass leaned against the dashboard.

"I have a general idea," he admitted. Sharena simply rolled her eyes and sighed.

She had convinced herself that this was all a good thing, she originally followed Joseph around to study his hamon growth. Now, she felt getting an outsider view of hamon wasn't worth the heat, especially as she realized even if she gained any use from this experience, she couldn't exactly quote a person who lived in a completely different era than she. The whole thing was giving her a headache, for now, it was easier to not question the chaos around her and simply go with the flow. If she contemplated anymore there was no doubt she would have an aneurism.

With a hand rubbing her temple she peeked towards Joseph, who seemed to be looking at the old compass a lot more than he had before she said anything. It was at this point she realized that she was convinced they were lost.

"Joseph, I will not think any different of you if you admit we are lost-" she began.

"We are about to run out of gas." He replied, his facial muscles unmoving in defiance of his rather serious statement.

"Wait what did you just say?" Sharena's voice raised a pitch as she stood straight up in her seat, eyes like saucers. "Y-you must be joking right?" Without thinking she raised up from her seat and tried to get a look at the dashboard to confirm his words. She couldn't form any words, the only thing that could come out of her mouth was a frustrated cry.

"We will be fine as long as we hit a road before then, we can follow that to any nearby towns,"

"Who even knows if there is anywhere even close to here!" her voice took on a more hysterical tone, "What if we just die out here in the desert? No more adventure, no more saving Mister Speedwagon-"

"Would you shut up?" Joseph was not in the mood to be patient with anyone, female or not. He was stressed enough to forget to gas up before they left the airport, he beat himself up about it already, he didn't need his friend doing it too. As if to mock him even more the jeep began to sputter. His luck with airplanes was bad enough, it seemed the car was a mode of travel to avoid now too. He ran a tanned hand through his hair, goggle-covered eyes aimed at Sharena's form. She had sat down in her seat improperly, her knees up to her chest and a redness to her face that could have been from the sun or shame, he didn't really care. The car came to a halt, it's tires no longer rotating, sinking into the shifting sand. Joseph flexed his fingers around the steering wheel before sighing, he supposed he should say something to make it better, "At least we are both out here, so we won't die alone,"

"You've gotta be kidding me," the blonde mumbled, turning her head to face him, "Was that supposed to make this better?"

"Did it work?"

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, but the light in her teal eyes spoke different words.

"Alright, well berate me later, we should start walking."

The fact that there was a small town no more than a mile or two from their military vehicle, was a blessing neither party dared to question. It was lucky for both her and for Joseph's hide, sure she probably couldn't do much to the effect of actually injuring him, but she supposed another tongue-lashing would have been more effective than violence anyways. Originally, Sharena's mind had been filled with images of the two of them pushing a damn car all the way through the desert while sad music played in the background. Even though that image may have just been heat induced hysteria, it depressed her just to think about it. What was even better was they were now walking on a crudely paved path into town instead of the unsteady sand.

Either way, they were both too hot and too thirsty to complain anymore to one another, dragging their dry carcasses forward took enough out of them as it was. Dealing with a vampire in the freezing cold without a jacket seemed preferable to the heat, maybe she was mentally repeating herself now.

The sound of tired feet slapping against stone turned silent as Joseph stopped right outside the village. He twisted his head back and forth, taking in the architecture. It reminded him of the set from a wild west movie he and Granny Erina had gone to see once. In fact, with all the trouble he had faced thus far since getting to North America made him feel like he was in fact part of the ragtag bunch of people taking the stagecoach in the movie. He wondered what part Sharena would play in the upcoming adventure, or rather their current adventure, because he was positive there was more to this whole situation than Straizo and Speedwagon. This man in the pillar was something more. His eyes shifted to his blond companion, she knew something about this and while he didn't want to pressure her, if things became serious, he hoped she would tell him anything pertinent.

Joseph breathed out through his nose and adjusted his goggles to hold up his bangs a bit better. That was when he noticed. He could hear his heartbeat, green eyes narrow at the realization. It was much too quiet in this town. Sure, the sun was going down by now, but people were usually still active at this time of day. From the corner of his vision in a second story window he saw a small child with tanned skin and dark hair. Large brown orbs peeked from behind a tattered curtain. Joseph sent a smile and short wave his way, the child happily waved back before being grabbed by an older woman, probably his mother. The woman looked out at the pair with her eyebrows furrowed and a frown on her face before returning to the shadows.

"What is going on in this place?" Sharena asked, taking steps past where the brunette remained still. Joseph only nodded, still attentive to where the child had been not moments before. "I hate to be typical in this situation, but maybe we should split up and look around." He didn't reply, but the blonde still went off in another direction, hoping to find a reasoning behind the ghost town.

Her feet carried her forward on their own, eyes bolting around for any sign of life, or something that could cause a lack of life. She walked around, humming to herself with her hands behind her back. She didn't really expect to find anything, but there was a bit of a tenseness to the environment with Joseph, though they both were too tired and had not known each other long enough to really start an argument. And now that she thought about it, she hadn't even been away from her home for more than a week.

That train of thought only brought her own a rather unappreciated path. She couldn't help but ask herself if anyone even noticed she was gone. She hadn't really spoken to her parents for nearly a year and she had friends, but none that she so actively hung out with that they would really notice her being gone for even a month's worth of time. If she was missed or not though, the question remained; should she be looking for a way to go back to her own time? Was there even a way to get back home? Whether it was the heat or the inquiries of her heart that was beginning to give her a splitting headache? Sun-kissed fingers rubbed her sweat-soaked temple.

With a groan she looked back in the direction she had come from, Joseph was nowhere in sight. It was nearing dusk and if they didn't meet back up it would be much more difficult to locate him. Sharena took a single step in that direction but froze right before she could take another. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tilted her head to the side. A familiar rumble reached her ears from somewhere in the distance. Teal eyes widened in realization, she craned her neck to glance back towards the sound.

A hard body tackled her to the ground, her face being smooshed right into the dust. She felt like the Wicked Witch of the East, and as she cracked open heavy lids, her house was revealed to be Joseph. He had a slight frown marring is handsome face and without a word he removed himself from atop her and towered over her.

"Get up quickly." He commanded, a hand held out to help her up.

"What is going on?" she asked.

"You almost got run over by a motorcycle," he exclaimed in disbelief, "Didn't you hear it coming right towards you?"

"I-I heard an engine, but I didn't realize it was so close." She stuttered out.

"Well, pay attention. Either way, we have found signs of activity, and they aren't very friendly towards us. Did you notice the symbol on it after it went passed?"

"No, like I said I barely saw anything."

Joseph put a hand to his chin and furrowed his brow in thought. A light humming sound came from his lips as he did so in a way that almost made it seem like he was acting like he was deep in thought.

"Are you actually thinking of what to do next or just trying to look cool?"

"Is it working?" he asked, adjusting his body in an odd way that he must have deemed a 'cool' pose. Sharena only snorted and began walking down the road, a hand muffling the resounding giggles. He must have stopped after seeing her turn away, because as her chuckles died down he showed up next to her, his long legs going at a leisurely pace to keep up with her motivated pace.

"I am assuming you really do have a plan, right?" she queried. He simply nodded. "That doesn't involve running away? We are in the middle of a desert you know," She said.

"Don't worry too much, I'm not just going to leave you hanging."

Sharena just raised a delicate eyebrow, wondering if he even knew what he was doing half the time or even remembered it afterwards. Twice now he had run away when things got hairy, but both of those times he came in and got the job done. "At least give me some idea of what is going to happen, I would prefer not to left out of the loop anymore than I have to be."

"We are going to kill two stones with one bird, wait no, that doesn't sound quite right."

"Two birds with one stone, Joseph."

"Right! Well as I am sure you noticed, the motorcycle was a military grade, and being that the only major wars going on currently is the one over in Europe, Mexico's revolution has been over for a decade or two, and I know that there is no way they would be alright with US troops being on their land."

"While finding out you are educated in world events is interesting, please get to the point. The sun will be setting soon."

"The point is, those are probably Nazis!"

"Nazis?!" Sharena shouted in disbelief. A large hand went over her mouth to silence her.

"Quiet, they may hear you. That motorcycle was mostly likely a German make, so morally, beating them up and stealing it to get out of here wouldn't be too wrong would it? Plus, maybe it will be enough to scare them off, so these people can be more comfortable leaving their houses."

"That seems, rather well thought out, I suppose I could go along with it."

"It is a plan even Granny would approve of,"

"I wouldn't go that far." The blonde grumbled.

"Even if she was, what she knows won't hurt her," he rationalized. "Right, Sha-Ree-Na" the smile he gave her was almost like a soft threat, she looked at him funny for a moment before the switch in her head went off.

"Oh, you think I'm going tell her, why would I? Wouldn't I get in trouble too? She kind of expects me to make sure you don't do anything too reckless." She reassured him.

"Me? Reckless? Bah!" he spoke, sarcasm dripping off each syllable.

"Right, well enough talk, I can see the moon on the rise and our last daylight will be exhausted in less than five minutes."

Their feet led them back towards where they had entered the town, and while the houses and business were still inactive, there seemed to be signs of life nearby. The two halted in their movements as a thick and most certainly foreign language.

"That is definitely not Spanish," Sharena mumbled. Her companion shot her a look and put a finger up to his lips. She took the hint and made a zipping motion over her lips.

Joseph crouched down and inched forward slowly. He took one look back to make sure Sharena wasn't going anywhere, and then quickly reached his head around the corner of the building to get the quickest look at what they were up against. Before he could be noticed he leaned back behind their cover.

"There are three of 'em drinking by the fire, though there may be more sleeping in the tent or walking around on guard duty. We should keep on our guard, but with the cover of nightfall we should have the advantage." He stated.

"Who has the advantage?" A voice that definitely did not belong to a female chuckled. Joseph's head whipped back to see whoever it was that owned such greasy speech. A man in dark green fatigues stood at least six feet high, his long arms were wrapped around a rather miffed looking Sharena. The man looked to be just any other Nazi soldier, except that the toothy grin he shot Joseph's way had rather unnaturally spiked canines and his eyes were a dreadful red color.

"A Vampire."

 **A/N: Howdy Ya'll. Don't worry I refuse to let this story die, and while there is no real excuse for the late update, I must say that it took me a bit of writing and rewriting to develop a chapter I was happy with, even now I have my doubts. Anyways, thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favorited, etc. Reviews especially really help and if you have a suggestion or something you would like to see in the future, or questions or whatever, just send 'em down the line. Even if you do not want to review you can always PM me. Thanks again for taking the time to read. Also, this time the next chapter will be coming down the line a bit faster as I have already begun writing it.**


	8. Walks Like a Lady

-Walks Like a Lady-

"You are a vampire."

"Ja, Herr Joestar. And if you take another step, I will gut the _fraulein_ where she stands." His threat included a knife being pressed against her side, cutting a hole into her clothing. She let out a muffled shout, the creature's dark-gloved hand was covering her lips, but even then, she didn't seem to be struggling too much.

For a moment Joseph thought about pulling the same trick he had with Straizo, but he felt like it was more inappropriate considering he did know Sharena, at least more than the reporter woman. "You alright, Sherrie?" he asked. The aforementioned just rolled her eyes and grunted. "Do you want me to save you?" This time she just shrugged. Was that supposed to mean yes or no? He really couldn't tell and he would prefer not to be nagged again if he made the wrong decision, "Is that a yes or-?" she simply shrugged again. All he could think was how women were so confusing.

Sharena on the other hand was rather calm and collected. Despite not having appreciated being somewhat stabbed and having her brand new clothes ripped, not that they were in good condition anyways, she was holding it together well. Why? Well, she supposed it was because she had dealt with a vampire before, and this particular one gave off the feeling that he knew nothing of what his lack of humanity gifted him. This along with the fact that Joseph was there to back her up, kind of dulled the excitement that could have come with a first encounter with the supernatural.

"Here maybe if you hear her helpless cries you will take this a bit more seriously, _Herr_ Joestar." the Nazi spat, clearly annoyed with the leisurely way the brunette was reacting to, or rather blatantly ignoring, his threats. To his surprise, when he moved his hand away, his captive didn't scream or even speak, she just took in an almost obnoxiously large breathe in. "What are you doing?" he inquired, scarlet eyes narrowing.

"For once, I'll let my fists do the talking," Sharena grinned. If it wasn't for the vampire's inhuman reaction time, he would not have seen her movements. Luckily because she had to escape his grasp first he was able to slightly dodge, but the jab of her fist still caught the side of his face. The blonde jumped back, now free of her restraints. She put her hands up in a defensive position, the limbs glowing with a yellowish green aura that lit up the night.

The Nazi stumbled back, a hand coming up to his cheek, "You pack quite the punch _fraulein_ , but this won't even bruise." he chuckled, eyes wild.

"Huh, I am definitely out of practice." she muttered, observing her still glowing fists. Her eyes moved back up to her opponent and the grin returned to her face at the sight, "Nevermind, just a delay I guess."

"Delay-?" the vampire's look of confusion morphed into one of agony as his cheek began to burn. "What-" a scream ripped through his throat as his face began to crumble away, "What have you done you _schlampe_!"

Despite not being quite sure of what the word meant, she had a feeling it was meant as an insult. Deciding that he wasn't deteriorating quick enough for her liking, she stepped forward to the now kneeling supernatural and punched him directly in the gut. He screeched out another string of German curses as he was sent back several feet, the light-filled power consuming nearly seventy-five percent of his body.

Joseph just stood there dumbstruck. He had put two and two together and assumed she knew how to use hamon, but had never expected her to be able to handle it well enough to fight, even if it really was just a couple hits with it. There was still so much about her he knew nothing about, and while most would probably be suspicious of where she had really come from and whether she was a threat, he could only find his curiosity about her multiply by a dozen.

His eyes flicked back over to the vampire and more importantly towards Sharena, who was still in a boxer's stance. The vampire got up on what was left of his legs, he must have been malnourished because his healing was nowhere near that of Straizo's, this man was bursting at the seams. Hamon was still attacking his body, the life-giving energy performing a deadly dance against the supernatural's healing ability. Sharena stood at the ready, preparing to attack again if the Nazi came too close. Her expression steeled, she seemed a completely different person compared to the quivering leaf she had been during his original face off with Straizo. Now she looked almost… cool. As if she could even be a main character who kept their ability hidden and now revealed their untapped potential, but wait, wasn't he supposed to be the main character?

"Wait a second, you're stealing my thunder!" he accused, a finger pointing right at Sharena.

"Huh?" she turned to look at him quizzically, "Did you say something?"

"Shouldn't I be beating up the villains?"

"Well, yes, but see I was kind of in a bind and then he insulted me so-"

"So?"

"That's it, if you want to finish him off you can be my guest, however make it quick before my hamon completely destroys him." They both turned around to see that the vampire had become nothing more than a pile of ash while they spoke. Sharena's eyes went wide in surprise, she hadn't really wanted to destroy him completely, she had genuinely hoped that Joseph would be the one to deal the finishing blow. She had never actually ended the life, or rather unlife, of a creature. Though she had to admit she felt rather numb about the entire predicament, which made her feel even worse about doing it.

Her brain had little time to consider it any longer as she collapsed to her hands and knees, a series of coughs racking through her body. Her hands shot up her her throat, the sudden sensation of being choked replacing the coughing. Lungs burning and vision blurred by unshed tears. It seemed that it was extremely taxing on her lungs and throat to use hamon breathing after so long, because she couldn't recall this ever happening before.

Joseph dashed toward her, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, "Hey what is going on, are you alright?" he half-shouted, half-asked. If she had been able, she'd have shushed him for being so loud and possibly attracting more enemies, instead rolled over onto her side and entered a recovery position. The elephant sitting on her chest seemed to lift slightly.

"Don't worry-" she had to pause and try to take a deeper breath, "'bout me, go take care of the other-," another struggled breath, "Nazis."

Joseph, despite being out of her range of vision, nodded in affirmation, his questions could wait. "Don't pass out before I get back," he grumbled, somewhat frustrated that she wasn't taking this seriously. As he turned back towards the soldier's camp he frowned. They had moved from their place and were now approaching him with guns drawn, they probably heard the scuffle. "Yes, just show off and leave me to deal with the hard stuff," He sent a sarcastic glare back towards the collapsed Sharena, but his expression softened, she looked just as brokenly pitiful as she had in the days before.

A bullet whizzed past him head, bringing his attention back to the task at hand…

As Joseph ran off Sharena leaned back against the wall, her breathing now in order. Out of curiosity she raised her hand up to her face to examine it. Eyebrows furrowing at the sight, it wasn't the bruised knuckles that she had a problem with, it was the scarab ring she still wore on her finger. The ring seemed to glow, in fact now that the adrenaline was flushed from her system and her breathing had calmed, she felt an uncomfortable heat seeping from the piece.

It was the first time it had even crossed her mind to remove the ring. And despite it possibly being responsible for her being transported here in the first place, she had really forgotten it was there at all. As if the weight jewelry normally had, especially on a ring that looked so bulky, was non existent. Which led her to the real question, why had the ring reacted in such a way now?

She fiddled around with it, observing how easily it moved around even though it had yet to fall off naturally. Sharena held up her hand towards the sky, watching the way the gem inlay sparkled under the moonlight, they exuded a much deeper color and fire now compared to the bright sun of the day. It was a fairly rare trait to have, part of her wondered if they were moonstones, not that any of that mattered.

The ring, the vampires, this time period, the Joestar family, it was all a mystery that rather than trying to unravel, she had chosen to take in stride, though if she scratched under the surface of such reasoning, she would find she was ignoring her problems so as not to deal with them, it was easier this way.

She let out a hiss as the ring's heat grew quickly in intensity before dying off completely. What was causing the damned thing to react now of all times, what was causing this stinging sensation?

"...your Hamon."

Sharena jolted at the intrusion to her thought process, eyes immediately moving towards the voice's owner, "Joseph," she addressed.

"Yes, that is my name. Were you listening to me?"

"Ah, no, sorry. What was that?"

"I was retelling my victory over that group, they may not have been vampires, but they did have guns. I'd say it was pretty valiant of me." he leaned down close to her face, a finger pointing towards his cheek, "Are you impressed? How about a kiss?"

"No, no. You said something about hamon." Joseph nearly fell over at her blatant disregard for his teasing, before his look of disbelief became serious.

"You're right, now I won't pester too much into your past or ask for any type of reasoning behind actions you have taken so far, but tell me," his body straightened up, darkened eyes never moving from hers, "Where did you learn to use your hamon."

Sherrie sighed somewhat in relief at his lack of prodding, and somewhat to slow down her brain that was now going a hundred miles an hour. "Hamon, huh? There is a long version and a short version."

Joseph tapped his chin in thought, "Give me the brief version, I can get the long version when all of this is over."

The blonde nodded in affirmation, racking her brain for a moment to put together a coherent thought that didn't end in her revealing everything and ending up under more suspicion then she probably already was. "Well, my paternal grandfather ran a shop," she paused for a second, wondering whether speaking about it in past tense despite currently existing in the time her grandfather would have been still operating the shop with his own grandfather. She mentally shrugged, after all pausing like this was probably rather odd, "that used hamon healing,"

"Healing?"

"Yes, a large portion of hamon users develop their hamon to serve others, I believe Straizo may previously have been one of the Tibetan monk hamon users, it can speed up the bodies naturally healing and can also fix broken bones, torn muscles, etc."

"You sent the reporter to your grandfather to fix her tooth."

"Yes, he taught me to use medicinal hamon. The aggressive uses however-" she paused in thought before continuing with furrowed brows, immediately letting the brunette know whatever came next was not the complete truth, "I learned on my own."

There was a flashing golden sign above her head that read 'bullshit' in thick black letters.

Joseph stared at her for a moment, he threw an "alright then," over his shoulder and made his way back towards where the Nazis had been camped.

Sharena scrambled to her feet, jogging to follow after Joseph, "T-that's it? No questions? No expression of doubts or anything?" she sputtered.

"You'd tell me if there was something crucial to the plot right?"

"What?"

"Something important. You would let me know, yeah?"

"Of course, if I knew it mattered I would tell you."

"Well then I can wait to hear the full story until another time."

The pair approached where they would be sleeping that night. Luckily for them the previous inhabitants had already set up cots for the night and had rations sitting about for the taking. There was no need for words as the two immediately got to stuffing their faces, the rations were mostly just dried meat and canned vegetables that would have been better if cooked properly, but they were too tired for such niceties.

Soon after they each took a military-grade cot and a rigid blanket that made them both miss the comforts of Erina's posh suite in New York. Sharena was going to comment on that fact as she lay down, but before she could get a syllable out Joseph spoke first:

"This will all be worth it after Speedwagon is properly avenged and honored," Sharena turned over to look at the bulky Joestar, who was partially falling off of the cot, and simply watched the seriousness on his face. She knew well enough to assume he held on to even the slightest hope that Mister Speedwagon was still among the living. Though Sharena had to guess that if his organization still existed in her own time, he must have had a bigger impact than what was accomplished by the late 1930s, but just in case she would keep quiet.

Silence overtook them once more, they simply lay there, staring up at the darkened sky. Sharena couldn't help but smile at the sight, eyes wide with wonder at the beauty above her. She had never spent time outside of urban areas, so seeing the majesty of deep space without the impediment of light pollution was incredible. She wanted nothing more than to stay there and look up at the sprinkled spheres of gas and fire. The only that could make it better would be-

Her eyes slid over to look at Joseph, who was in a similar position to herself. His thick arms were folded behind his head, and his calves, despite how enormous his legs were, had been crossed over each other. He was laying down in such a delicate manner, she expected him to just sprawl about, but she had forgotten who he was raised by, there is no way Erina would raise him to be so-

A deep and incredibly loud snore interrupted her thoughts. She looked over at the perpetrator, the brunette responsible just lay there on his back, mouth wide open as the horrid snoring continued. In a split second he had gone from being so nicely laying there to losing all dignity and Sharena realized she had probably spoken much too soon. With a sigh she rolled her body around to face away from him and sighed, falling asleep would be an even greater task than it would have been out in the middle of nowhere. She missed New York…

She saw nothing. Felt Nothing. Was Nothing.

Had she ever really existed in the first place? Did asking that question automatically assure her existence?

Her consciousness was simply suspended in nothingness, with no cares or worries, she wish to stay here forever, outside of time and space.

"We can't stay here forever," a thick accented voice spoke. It felt like honey coating her consciousness, but that didn't determine whether she was meant to respond or not, and what she was to respond with. The voice beat her to the punch, "I know, it is so much easier to drift into this nothingness, but I've dwelled here for too long, we have much to do, then we can drift here forever if you like."

How was she meant to respond? Who was this person and what did she need to do? She couldn't even remember who she was, much less who someone else was or some great task laid out for her.

"Ah, you won't be able to speak here, this place is outside of space time, you are only human so I don't expect you to be able to respond to me." the voice sounded amused.

She wondered what that made him if he looked down upon her humanity. He just let out a sound of disapproval in response to her mental query. Suddenly, she could register an eerie golden glow coming near to her. It took a moment for her mind to identify them as a pair of smoldering irises. They were radiant, almost hypnotizing to look at, and for that very reason she tried instead to focus on the void that surrounded them. Their movement stopped fairly close to where her consciousness dwelled, the distortion of his next words could nearly be felt, "It is time to awaken, little human, be wary of my brethren and refrain from removing my ring unless I command you to do so, after all it is all we have left."

She wished she could demand an actual explanation for a single thing she had just experienced, or at least glare, but before she could, her consciousness was sent hurling back through the void…

Joseph and Sharena both woke up with little incident, that is if one considers waking up to half a town of people staring at you as something insignificant. As it turned out the little girl and her mother Joseph had previously witnessed were not the only people in this town. And the entirety of its population seemed ecstatic that the occupation of their town had been dealt with by the pair. At least that was the conclusion they had come to, since neither of them spoke Spanish, much less the dialect of the nearby villages. Luckily, Joseph communicated with them well enough to show them where he had left out the knocked out and tied up soldiers so they could dispose of them however they deemed fit.

What was really surprising however, was that the duo was showered with an almost unbearable amount of gifts upon their departure: bread, fruits, vegetables, clothing, and even alcohol. A teenage boy who knew just enough English to tell them the gist of what was going on admitted to them that the soldiers were supposed to take about two times what they were giving them back to a Nazi base somewhere farther into the desert. The lieutenant of vampiric persuasion had made sure they could do nothing in retaliation to the occupation, going as far as kidnapping several women and children, as well as openly killing several others. It was safe to say Sharena felt a little better about ceasing his supernatural existence. The youth also requested in broken English that they go and save the kidnapped townspeople and the villagers would forever be in their debt.

Sharena was more than shocked when Joseph flat out told them no. She really should have expected this from him by now, there was little doubt he had a backwards way of making this work out. He wanted to help them out as soon as possible, he had a good heart beating in that big ole chest of his, but he also had a drive to make sure his family was taken care of first. No matter his intentions, the villagers no doubt misunderstood him, because they still wished them off with smiles and cheers.

Which all lead to where they were now, both riding a motorcycle through the desert because getting the car would have taken 'too much time,' in Joseph's opinion. Which probably meant he thought the motorcycle looked cooler, which for him it did, but for Sharena, who was stuffed into a small sidecar along with their loot, she felt and probably looked like an idiot.

"Why couldn't we just have taken the truck, or the car, or even just two motorcycles, I know how to ride one you know," she shouted over the engine's purr. She didn't get a reply, only having the chance to see a grin on Joseph's face as he sped up, aiming to jump the vehicle between the dunes. Sharena held on for dear life.

A good hour later Joseph began to slow the vehicle down, he was growing sick and tired of the feeling of being watched. He was sure it wasn't Sharena, she was too busy being overdramatic about her current position and ignoring him for that. It was only as they rolled to a stop that she gave him a curious look.

"I've felt eyes on us since we left the village this morning." he admitted, eyes shifting around beneath his goggles. A tan cloth blew through the wind and fluttered to the ground, Joseph removed his goggles and propped up him bangs with them. "There is no way anyone would be this far out in the desert," he contemplated more to himself.

"You seem really anxious, are you alright?" Sharena asked, doing the same with a pair of goggles she had acquired from the German's camp.

"Who could be following us unseen?" Joseph continued. He stood up and leaned down to grab the cloak, throwing it behind him absentmindedly, "There is just no way."

"If anyone was trailing us wouldn't it be obvious? To keep up with the motorcycle they would also need a loud motorized vehicle."

"You're right, It has to be my imagination."

Unbeknownst to them, an arm reached out from under the still floating cloak and aimed to stab Joseph. Sharena noticed, eyes going wide as she attempted to wiggle herself out of the cramped sidecar. The mystery assassin made his move, slicing Joseph's glove and part of his arm open in a split second, before jumping back out of range. The man balanced on a cactus in a crouch a couple meters away from his victim.

"You're a sharp one." the assassin rasped, his voice perfectly matching his goblinesque features. "You sensed my presence, a feat not even wild bats could accomplish."

"Who the hell are you and why are you tailing me?" Joseph demanded, his irritation clear.

"I'm here too." Sharena reminded, still making a fool of herself trying to get out of her self-induced prison.

"I'm not tailing you, I'm capturing you so our army can ask about Straizo, Joseph Joestar" he announced.

"S-Straizo," Joseph and Sharena spoke in unison, alarms going off in their heads.

"Our army?" Joseph continued alone, his eyebrows furrowed in thought as he slid into a defensive stance, "By your face and accent, I'd say you're German. What do you all have to do with Straizo and Speedwagon?" he grabbed his leather hat in his fist, tossing it away in frustration, "Come on, I'll beat the answers out of you," his voice rose with his anger. Sharena struggled more as she realized this was definitely going to get messy.

"You face the SS commando knife of I, Donobang, with your bare hands?" the assassin questioned, racking his tongue over his gloved hand, "I feel insulted." He drew his knife, slashing it around in a showy manner before pouncing forward with a war cry of: "Come then, stripling,"

Joseph took it in stride, a snide remark already bubbling up from his throat, "Here, have your flea-ridden magic carpet back." before tossing the cloak into the air and sending a hamon-strengthened fist into the bundle. His cockiness immediately became a screech of pain, scaring Sharena out of her inattentive stupor. She jumped up with little issue this time, alarmed at her companion yelping. As she drew closer to him she saw the cacti needles sticking out from his fist and cringed away.

While the pair was focused on Joseph's pincushion of a hand, Donobang made his move. He twisted through the air and slammed his foot into the brunette's face, effectively knocking him over. Sharena just sat there and stared, wide eyed. Before her reflexes could jump into action she received a foot to the stomach, sending her flying back several meters away. It was a miracle she didn't collide with a cactus, but her abdomen was still in pain, and her bare skin scraped against the rough sand. She rolled onto her back with a groan, surprised by the sheer force of the attack.

On the other end, Joseph was having his face shoved halfway into the ground, the assassin's boot keeping him their rather uncomfortably. "Victory!" he cried out with a laugh, "You'll need to do better than that to challenge me. Now repeat after me and maybe I'll at least spare the _fraulein_ more than the necessary amount of pain when we get back to base, "I completely agree, _Herr_ Donobang."

"I-I completely agree, _Herr_ Donobang," Joseph struggled to say.

"What was that?" he mocked, a hand cupped around his ear, "I can't seem to hear you."

"You're a very nimble fellow, _Herr_ Donobang. I wanted to save myself some trouble so I'm lying down her for my safety." He replied back, making sure the assassin was more focused on his blabbering mouth, rather than his finger tips that were radiating hamon into the ground below him.

"What, you think you are safe down there?" he questioned, his eyes moving up from his captive to the tall cactus in front of him. "Wh- What's with this cactus?" His eyes went wide at the sight, part of the cactus was bulging out in a knot.

"Take a real close look."

Donobang took the suggestion and leaned in closer, oblivious to his captive's escape from beneath his boot. The Cactus suddenly burst open, the water within having been stirred up by Joseph's hamon, and the needles, along with a few chunks of the plant's flesh, imbedded themselves within the assassin's body. A high-pitched screech filled the air, but became a dull groan as Joseph kicked him to the ground. The roles were reversed as the brunette's heel dug into Donobang's cheek.

"The cactus was my goal all along," he revealed grinning, "Cacti are made up of 95% water and conduct hamon fabulously." he smashed the assassin's face down harder, leaning down so that he could hear every word. "Now it's time to talk, Donobang. Tell me everything you know."

The interrogation was quick, and while extra injury to Donobang's person was unnecessary, Joseph wanted to make sure he wouldn't become a problem in the future. It was safe to say that tying him to a cactus upside down would properly incapacitate him for the time being. Now he could properly relish in Donobang's revelation to him.

Never had his heart felt so full, nor had such relief and happiness filled his body. He leaned up against his motorcycle fiddling with his goggles, unable to hide the grin on his face as he thought about how things could go back to the way they were. Speedwagon, Granny, and him, if anything these endeavors would add Smokey and Sharena to their little family as well. Everything was going to turn out just fine from now on-.

"Thanks for coming to make sure I was okay, I really appreciate it, _Jojo_." Sharena abruptly jeered, dusting herself off as she stumbled towards Joseph. She blatantly ignored Donobang's current position, served him right for causing such trouble and using her as a threat, as if she'd let him get a second punch in, much less drag her back to some Nazi hangout.

She rubbed her eyes for a moment as she stared at the Joestar, realizing he wasn't going to respond to her ridicule. Her gaze then promptly zeroed in on the steady stream of tears spilling from the brunette's eyes. "J-Joseph are you alright?" she wondered, reaching her hand out with the intention of comforting him. Instead he looked up at her, green eyes glistening in the sunlight. There was the brightest of smiles on his lips.

"He's okay." he spoke, his voice soft and calm, "Speedwagon is alive, Sherrie. I'll admit I was hopeful when they couldn't find a body, but now-" he reached a bulky hand up to wipe his tears away before looking her straight in the eyes and embracing her, clearly overcome by his emotions. "What a fine piece of news this is, Granny will be pleased to hear about this." he continued.

The physical contact made Sharena flinch in surprise, but she quickly relaxed, placing one of arms around his back. Her hand gripping lightly on the back of his shirt, despite how sweaty it was from the recent action. Inevitably his happiness and warm physical attention made her feel a secondhand cheerfulness, making her ignore anything she'd normally have been bothered by.

"That is absolutely wonderful, Joseph," she replied, genuinely happy for him. He released her, stepping back and taking a deep breathe. Their gazes met for a moment and Sharena's mouth went dry at the look on his face. The joy on his face may not have been caused by her, but it nearly made her heart burst. She wanted nothing more than to stay there and stay within Joseph's cheery presence, where everything was okay and she could just stare into his lovely emerald eyes-

"Oh and Sherrie?" his words shifted her from her thoughts, teal irises focusing on him.

"Yeah?" she replied, expecting some important declaration or admission.

"If you constantly nag and complain no man is going to want to marry you."

She changed her mind, she didn't want to be around him anymore.

The trip to locate the German hacienda base actually went by rather quickly as there were no more interruptions. The pair decided to lay low and plan out their excursion from a cliff overlooking a large Mexican castle.

"My cactus pal, Donobang, said this is where the secret underground facility is, Speedwagon has to be in there."

"So we just need a way inside right? Hand me your binoculars for a sec." Sharena asked, hand outstretched to receive them. Joseph shrugged and gave them to her.

"See any secret entrances?"

"How would I be able to see something like that through a regular pair of binoculars?" she glanced at Joseph, eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know. Can you use hamon to increase your eyesight or something?"

"No!" she shouted, quickly covered her mouth. She hadn't thought about the possibility she might give away their position until it was too late. "Anyways, I see a group of women approaching the _hacienda_ with various goods to deliver. I can probably sneak in along with them, or distract them long enough for you to get in unnoticed. If we go in guns blazing it could put the entire facility of high alert." she reasoned, handing the binoculars back to Joseph, he nodded in agreement. She grabbed a basket of various breads and a traditional dress they had received earlier in the morning. "I will take this and one of the garments they gave us as a disguise. Make an attempt to be inconspicuous as you approach the base's entrance."

Sharena left Joseph alone to change behind the corner. She returned to him clad in a rather colorfully embroidered, off the shoulder dress. Something about the delicate look to it and the lovely designs made her self-confidence increase exponentially which was good considering she needed to be just confident enough to pull this off. She raked a hand through her hair, suddenly realizing short blond hair would do nothing but hinder her. A similarly decorated hooded poncho was shoved into her face before she could even begin to think of a solution. Her eyes stared for a moment at Joseph's large hand grasped around the cloth before she grabbed it from him, a quizzical look passing his way.

"Acting all high and mighty with your plans when you haven't even covered up your light hair," he scolded. Sharena easily slipped it over her, pulling the hood up to cover her fair hair, luckily her skin had a healthy tanness to it, so she could just barely pass as the paler cousin of the Mexican women she would be following.

"Well, I'm off, see ya soon, Jojo." she expressed, waving a hand over her head in a brief farewell.

Joseph watched her leave, a knot in his stomach telling him he shouldn't have just let her go off on her own. He sighed and scratched the back of his head, a grimace forming on his face. He really didn't want to have to come jumping in if something happened to her, much less try and focus on sneaking in when she was probably in danger. What would he even do? He put to fingers to his forehead for a moment, trying to focus his thoughts. He looked around for a moment, looking for something around that he could adlib a plan from. There was always the possibility of driving the motorcycle right through the front entrance, but she had been right saying it would do no good causing a ruckus. His gaze settle on the canvas bag she had grabbed her disguise from. Just then it came to him, his lips upturned as a plan B churned its way through his brain…

"Vegetables, canned goods, meat, ham, eggs. That's a basket of food." one of the trolls guarding the hacienda barked, a leer on his face. Sharena stood at the end of the line of females all bringing goods into the base walls, hood pulled down to hide her hair and eyes, the latter of which were anxiously shifting about. These two soldiers were giving her a rather creepy vibe. Her hunch was proved correct as the very ogre who had checked the first females basket turned towards the group and announced that they would now be performing a frisk search. She stiffened as her brain fully comprehended what was going on here, and the fact that if she was going to help out the Joestars and retrieve Mister Speedwagon, she would have to go through the same.

The first female stepped up, the one guards placing his hands all over her. Sharena cringed, her moral detector going off. "Don't make that face. Smile when I frisk you!" he shouted at the woman he was touching so inappropriately.

"The rest of you, lift up your shirts and give us big smiles." the other guard commanded, ogling each and every female down the line, including Sharena. The other women immediately obeyed, hoping to just get it over with. The soldiers took their time staring and sniggering at each woman's expense before waving them on. Their eyes landed on the only one who hadn't done as she was asked.

"Hey, didn't you hear us, woman? Show us what's under your dress, and move that hood away too," the shorter guard growled out. Sharena just stood there, frozen and unable to respond even if she wanted to, she was just so shocked at the behavior going on, and the fact that she was expected to just do the same. The man's grin quickly became a grimace as he approached her and grabbed her skirt, ready to tear it up himself. "I said to lift it up, bitch!"

Sharena shrieked at the sudden invasion of her personal space and hopped back. Her basket had been flung in some direction and her hood flew back, revealing her light blond hair and teal eyes. Rather than finding her appearance suspicious in anyway the guards eyes seemed to gain a new gleam to them.

"To think they had such a hot thing amongst them, huh? Blondes must be pretty rare, I think I'll take my time with this one, Shultz."

Sharena stumbled back, her backside falling in the sand. Her breathing became erratic, her heroic actions from the night before meant nothing now when she was formally demoted back to a damsel in distress without someone to back her up and give her the confidence she so desperately needed. Had her brain not be a crumpled mess at the possibility of being assaulted she would have wondered wear her fiery attitude from before had gone, or rather where it always seemed to go. The men both came closer, but stopped in their tracks as a tall shadow fell over them.

"I've brought you some tequila, is that alright to bring through?" a forcefully high-pitched, but definitely masculine voice interrupted their movements. Both the guards and their possible victim both turned their necks to stare at the newcomer. A man over six feet tall stood there in a dress clearly too small for him. His chest area was padded to simulate rather voluptuous breasts and his face was covered in bright makeup. Brown hair was pinned back with fancy golden clips and various types of matching jewelry adorned his neck, ears, and wrists. The man's painted lips had the coyest of smiles as he batted his lengthy lashes and Sharena was easily knocked from her frightened stupor by the absolute buffoonery she was beholding, it was this moment where she realized Joseph Joestar was the best thing that ever happened to her. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

The guards on the other hand were less than amused at Joseph's performance and backed away, guns raised. "Put your hands up, You twitch and we shoot!" they both cried out, clearly disturbed.

Joseph stared at them, looking rather insulted at their reaction as he reached in his basket and pulled out two bottles of tequila. "Why? Why are you panicking?" he questioned, genuinely confused.

"That is a furtive moment!" they shouted, cocking their weapons in response to his approach. "Fire!"

Joseph raised his hands in a show of surrender, "Just hold on, I understand, I won't move!" he shouted back in alarm. He turned his head and clicked his teeth, "Damn, Y-you Germans are too smart. To think you'd see right through my disguise."

"You're nuts, of course we did, you creep!" one yelled.

"No girl in the world like an ox, you ox!" the other laughed, "Look at yourself with clearer eyes, moron!"

"What was that!?" Joseph's eyes lit up in fury at their words. He took a deep breath and aimed the bottles cork towards the guards. The bottles began to vibrate violently, a yellow aura surrounding the glass. With a yell of 'hamon!', the corks shot upward and hit a tree above the guards. The reaction inevitably caused two large fruits to fall from the tree, hitting the guards square in the head. This giving Joseph an opening to brutally swing his leg into both their faces. Blood spurted from the impact, knocking out several teeth and knocking the guards out. Sharena stood up on shaky legs and approached the scene of the incident, her eyes changing focus between the incapacitated Nazis and the _beautiful_ Joseph Joestar.

Without a word Joseph grabbed hold of one of the guards legs and began to drag him, stopping only to tell Sharena to grab the other and follow his lead. She gratefully did as she was told, even though it took her a bit longer to get him out and around the corner to where her partner had placed his own man. She slumped against the wall and breathed heavy as Joseph crouched near the guard she had dragged.

"Shoot that was so depressing, my self confidence took a pretty bad hit there." he mumbled to himself, wrenching the clothes off the knocked out soldier.

"Are you seriously worried about how you looked beating up those guys?" Sharena giggled, amazed that he was focused on something so ridiculous. "You really helped me out there Joseph, and I appreciate it greatly." she spoke seriously, leaning forward to put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and gave her a cheesy grin.

"I had a feeling you would mess up some how, so I made sure to come up with a plan B." he admitted. Sharena couldn't even be angry at him, because either way he had looked out for her and that's what matter. She didn't need to know the truth of what happened after he came up with the plan, of how he worried about her and became filled with anger when he realized they planned to molest her, or how he barely contained himself enough to even get the costume on when he decided to step in.

"Yeah, I seem to have performance issues when it really matters, I apologize for that." she admitted, her face turning red in realization at how pitiful she must seem to him. She expected another rash comment, but instead he seemed focused on putting on his next brilliant disguise, a German uniform. She let out a deep breath and let her small smile remain as she just watched him button up his shirt. Her eyes followed his fingers that expertly handled each button on his shirt, ending up on his rigid collar bones, and his thick neck, and his makeup caked face. She stopped her thoughts and snorted in surprise. "Joseph."

"Hm?" he looked back at her for a moment in curiosity.

"You still have that makeup on your face." she giggled. He groaned putting a hand to his cheek, he had completely forgotten about the rest of his disguise. She grabbed what was left of his own dress and tore a chunk off, scooting her way around to face Joseph. "Come here I'll clean it off for you."

"Thanks, Sherrie."

"No problem, Jojo."

 **I apologize for the lateness of this update, I intended to have it finished last Thursday, the 24** **th** **, for Joseph's (and Bruno's) birthday, but things became a bit hectic, plus the length of the chapter means it took longer to write and edit. Either way, I appreciate your understanding in this matter. Also, a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, and even those of you who just read up to this point, I cannot stress enough how important it is to me that you have chosen to spend time reading this story. As always, if you have comments, concerns, critiques, or even suggestions for the story, please reach out, if not to the review/comment section, then to my private message inbox, I will take any ideas you have into consideration!**

 **Thanks again for being here,** _ **hasta luego**_ **.**

 _ **(P.S. Some people have requested longer chapters, which is kind of why this is 7k words rather than 2k-5k, so I would like to know what people prefer lengthwise (even if you don't mind me just writing it chapter by chapter with no real pre-determined length). Take into account that chapters will never be under 2k words nor will it be more than 8k. Thanks again.**_


	9. Higher Place

Santana sniffed the air recognizing a particular inhuman musk that he never believed he would encounter again. There was another of his kind nearby. Had he not been near godlike himself he'd undoubtedly have prayed that it wasn't Kars and his subordinates. He may have served under them once, but two thousand years of sleep after being abandoned on this continent as a guard dog gave a lot of time for internal reflection. He no longer cared about viewing a sunrise or becoming Kars's definition of perfection, it sounded like too much work to him. It would be better to stay here on the mother continent and sleep and eat, he had no drive for anything more than that.

He inhaled deeply, a hefty eyebrow twitching ever so slightly to reveal his surprise. It was not one of the big three, but this presence could prove to be problematic depending on the being's mood, which was most likely sour as usual.

Santana contorted his arms over his head to scratch his back rather casually, a pleased groan coming from his lips. It had been a couple millennia since he had seen them, was he still expected to greet a former superior? Perhaps it was better to leave them alone. His eyes traveled up to where his observers sat. Foolish little humans, always forgetting their place on the food chain. A hand flew up to his temple as a horrid noise suddenly racked his auditory nerve, Stroheim, his name seemed to be, was yelling, again. Even he really did decide to find the other of his kind he would need to go through them, at least he was hungry enough for the job.

Joseph helped Sharena get to her feet, he was now fully shoved into a German uniform, a metal helmet covering up his hair. Sharena was still wearing her poncho and embroidered dress but was now also covered in sand. She had considered donning the other soldier's clothing, but decided that her chest, while not anything larger than average, would have still be noticeable under the fatigues. Instead, she had grabbed her basket from earlier and decided it was best to continue with the original plan.

"Where do you think they are holding Mister Speedwagon?" she asked, following closely behind Joseph as he entered the walls of the hacienda. He held a hand to his chin, eyebrows furrowed before he stopped walking and looked at her.

"Where do you think he would be?" he replied with a question.

"I have no idea that is why I asked you." She grumbled, eyes narrowing.

"We should probably split up then, you can search one place and I another."

"Joseph, I have never met him, how would I even recognize him?"

"Well-" he seemed to have just realized this fact, his face scrunched recognizing his error. Without warning, he crouched down near a small patch of sand and began to draw something in it with his finger. Sharena looked over his shoulder as he spoke, "He is really old, even older than Granny, and he has short gray hair," he dragged his finger through the face, "his most prominent feature is a long scar across his face, I doubt any of the cowards around here have something like that so it should be a dead giveaway."

"Should be easy enough," Sharena replied. Joseph stood back to his towering height and look down at her for a second, his face still uncharacteristically troubled. "Are you alright? We know Speedwagon is alive in here so we just gotta find him and get out, no big deal. Especially with that super technique of yours."

"What technique?"

"Running away."

"You are completely right, but to be honest I'm more worried about you."

Sharena's face went red. Despite his concern probably being placed more in the fact of her getting into trouble and that he must save her from again, but she still felt a bit happy that her safety was on his mind at all. She gave him a thumbs up and a wink to assure him, "I'll be a-okay. Just get find Mister Speedwagon, we can meet back outside a little before noon okay?" she looked up at the sky briefly, "From the sun's current position that should be about two hours tops. That way if one of us finds him we will have an assured way to contact each other."

"That seems reasonable. See you in two hours then." Joseph made his way to one of the entrances.

As she watched him walk away a chill creeping up her spine. She chewed her lip to try and quell the looming sense of doom. In the end her anxiety got the better of her and she jogged back towards him. "Joseph, wait up!" he stopped and turned around to look at her, his eyes clearly telling her hurry up with whatever she needed, "Please be careful."

He nodded with a self-assured smirk and went back to his mission.

She stood there for several moments, the morning sun beating down on her, at this rate her tan would turn into a red burn, in fact it was kind of starting to irritate her skin more than usual, she supposed it had something to do with being closer to the equator or something of that sort and shrugged off as she pulled her hood up.

Her feet easily carried her across the stone towards the entrance she had viewed the women from earlier enter. The blond readjusted her hold on the basket and approached the door rather cautiously now, hoping her instincts about the coming hours would be wrong despite a little voice in her head telling her that a real danger existed within this place. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she was in no way defenseless.

Sharena's feet padded down the metal hallway. There had been a rather sudden change in atmosphere that made her hug the cloak closer to herself. The coziness of the sandstone, rugs, and natural sunlight were now far away. It had been replaced by a long hallway that was sparsely lit which gave off a rather villainous vibe. She had no doubt now that there was something shady going on here, other than the kidnapping of course.

The dark hallway was lit by oil lamps rather than electricity, leaving her wondering just how much creepier the place could be. The flames cast creeping shadows that seemed to move on their own. Despite her growing apprehension, she decided it was best to ignore the creeping chill consuming her limbs and focus on her breathing. Her grandfather would scoff at how pitiful she had been behaving. After the hell, or rather training, he had put her through she should have had thicker skin when it came to the emotional aspect of fighting. It that had always been her downfall in everything, even her less scientific look onsite for archeological digs that had caused her and Professor Schon to butt heads time and time again. Losing the man, she looked up to and who cared when no one else did, it made her feel half-there, and without the strong support she was nothing. It was the reason she had stopped using hamon in the first place, and it was the very same reason she had grown so attached to Joseph after knowing him for so short a time. Then again, hormones also probably had something to do with that as well. Either way, she could use hamon, she was strong, and while Joseph may have been born with a talent greater than hers, she had trained in it, developed her fighting style to wield it, hell she had destroyed a vampire just the night before. A supernatural creature she never believed could exist outside of popular culture and she had used her hamon to disintegrate it to nothing. That thought only reminded her that there could be more vampires in this base, or perhaps something even more sinister. Hadn't Straizo said something about a man in the pillar?

She immediately perked up and began focusing more on her surroundings. She might as well die alert and aware. Painful or not, she would prefer not to die a coward who hid away from the danger, despite that being exactly how she had been behaving. All the inner contemplation was giving her the biggest headache, and so was the sudden repulsive scene reaching her nostrils. Her hand immediately lifted the collar of her cloak to cover up the lower half of her face. Even so, the stench permeated her senses.

Her turquoise eyes shifted around to find the source, but it was just about futile in the dim light. She removed the cloth to take a single deep breath. Raising her hand up, she slammed it into the wall with less than the amount of force required to break it down, though it still rumbled. The sparkling yellow energy moved from her palm into the wall, lighting it up all the way down the hall for just a moment. That moment was all she needed to get a better bearing of her surroundings.

Her eyes caught sight of a door ajar a few meters down. She approached cautiously, fists up in a defensive position, preparing herself for the worst. When she got close enough, she raised her foot to nudge the door open. Halfway through the motion her foot caught on something malleable, the impact making a horrible squelching sound. Her gaze immediately moved downwards to the object, revealing a dark crimson lump that stuck to her boot as she retracted her leg. Sharena activated her hamon breathing and allowed the light energy to surround her hand. Leaning down, her glowing limb outstretched as a makeshift flashlight, she squinted to get a better look. Her eyes went wide, and her breath hitched in her throat, her hamon energy dissipating with her senses. The object was a chunk of flesh that she assumed to be an arm considering the single finger bone mixed into the mess. She staggered back, her hands going up to shield her eyes from the scene, but the damage was done, and the gore was ingrained in her memory, just as Straizo's body had been after Joseph's creative use of grenades in New York.

She was about ready to turn around and bolt back to the surface, but a sudden grip upon her hand caused her to yelp and forget about escape— rather she shifted focus on surviving. She bristled at the sudden contact, but as she turned around, the one holding onto her hand so possessively was a young boy no older than thirteen. Before she could say a word, he tightened his grip and took off, half-dragging Sharena behind him. His speed was incredible for one so young, but she was much too surprised to yank her arm away from the kid, especially as she struggled to keep up with him. Though even then, she couldn't help but question why a child was down here in the first place. He couldn't be some freak experiment, could he?

"Hey, keep up, sis!" he commanded her, she was lagging as the gears in her brain turned more and more. Several more twists and quick turns when the boy finally came to a rather immediate halt. Sharena took in her surroundings: there was much better lighting where they were currently, and she could tell that the corridor split off into three directions. The boy still held her hand tightly, using one of the fingers on his other to tap his chin as if in deep contemplation. He leaned forward to look down each direction, rocking back and forth on his heels nonchalantly.

"Which way should we go, sis?" he questioned, big brown eyes looking up at her. Sharena stood there and just stared back at him, not sure what to do or say. This whole situation was too odd, though one would think she'd have been used to that by this time. A stifling silence formed as she let her eyes adjust more to hazy surroundings. It was only now that she really got a good look at his darkened skin, she highly doubted he was one of the foreigners currently occupying the base, especially with his other similarly shaded features. What was truly odd was that his clothes, consisting of a blue shirt and shorts, were tattered and worn, yet he didn't look malnourished and or sickly like many of the people in the village that morning had been. Her eyes narrowed, there was something off about this whole situation. She should probably get more information before following him around anymore.

"You're here to help right? You aren't wearing a uniform and you don't smell like the perfumes Señor Stroheim has his servant girls wear, so you must be here to save us." He stated, an odd grin on his face. It was at this time that she recalled the villagers' request for them to save those who had been kidnapped, this child must have been one of those who were taken. She gave an unsure nod, knowing that was regretfully not their main mission, but the child became even giddier, nonetheless. "Well I am taking you to where the rest are being held, so we have to hurry!"

It seemed a legitimate enough reason, but there was still an eerie feeling that continued to creep up her spine, but she used all her willpower to push her instinct deep and far away. Right now, she needed to use her emotional intelligence for once in her life. Whether this was a good idea or not would remain to be seen, but she continued to follow him, nonetheless.

With a heavy sigh she knelt in front of him, motioning with a nod of her head for him to hop on. "This will be faster, hop on." She grumbled, not quite sure how she felt being led around by a child. For now, she would humor him until she got to the bottom of this entire situation. The kid jovially did as he was asked without another peep. He wrapped his arms rather tightly around her neck to hold on, but she didn't mind very much, her brain concerned about other things. Sharena hooked her arms underneath the kid's thin legs.

Then, she stretched her legs and lungs, before taking dashing forward again. When they came to an impasse the lost child would simply tug on her hood, signifying left or right. It was a good system and their short journey went on for several minutes until they reached a dead-end hallway.

"It's in there, sis," the child spoke up, patting the top of the blonde's head to get her to stop. She did just that and looked in the direction the boy pointed out. It was a giant set of metal double doors, reinforced by rusted metal bolts. As the pair approached, she was unsure if there was a special way to open it or if brute force would work given the fortification.

She placed the child down and put her hands on the door, trying to gain a purchase on it without the use of her hamon. Amazingly, she was able to budge it ever so slightly, proving it to be possible to open without some fancy lock and key. She bent her knees now, getting close to the ground she utilized her shoulder to push against the rough surface, her arms held up well, at first. A hot tearing went through her body as she continued to apply pressure, the muscles throughout her arms rippling beneath her skin. She immediately regretted putting forth as much as she did as the doors slid open enough for them to get through. For when her eyes peeked into the room, she nearly lost the contents of her stomach; it was the easily the worst thing she'd ever experienced. It was only made worse as the doors decided to swing all the way open. Forget vampire monks being blown to bits, forget the chunk of meat from earlier that day, they did not compare to the carnage.

There was a large cage in the middle of the room, it was held up by thick rusty chains over a gaping chasm. The only outside access to it a small bridge, supported by seemingly nothing. In Sharena's case however, there was no need to go any farther than a few steps into the room to witness the gore. There was very little red surprisingly, in fact the body parts draped here and there were a sickly pale, unnaturally so even for corpse parts. There were limbs, torsos, and pieces of heads with all of them riddled with bullet holes. But again, there was so very little blood, maybe a dried drop here and there, but it was almost like it had been — she dared not think it— harvested. As if being Nazis wasn't bad enough, these poor villagers, these human beings, had been used as nothing but blood bags. It made her veins run hot.

The kid behind her blindly ran out, a smile on his face, "I brought help! I am back with a nice lady who can help us!" he shouted out, voice echoing off the walls. The expanse of his grin kept his eyes cinched shut, a blessing to his poor childish senses.

Sharena's eyes widened, this child could not see this scene. As he got close enough to her, she moved faster than she probably ever had. She fell to her knees behind him, one had grasped across his chest to keep him secured in place and the other clamped over his eyes. Her chest heaved as she leaned her head against the back of his.

"Huh? Why's nobody saying anything, and why can't I see anything, sis? What's going on?" the boy asked. Sharena gritted her teeth and spun around to grasp the youth tight to her chest.

"Keep your eyes closed," she demanded, unsure what to do now that she knew the villagers' gruesome fate. She racked her brain for what to do next, but she was consumed by so many things that it was hard to focus, especially as she couldn't quite take her eyes away from the massacre or keep her nostrils from smelling the gruesome display. What she did know however, was that this was for one purpose and one purpose only. Sharena wasn't dense enough to not put two and two together. There were vampire here, they were experimenting with them, they had to be, and these people were nothing more than farm animals, maybe even less. Their broken bodies nothing more than reaped grain to the monsters here. But there was still a piece missing. How was this at all related to the pillar man Straizo warned them of? And the statue she had destroyed… she knew it was connected to hamon somehow. She also knew that if it was somehow connected to vampires or the supposed pillar man, which brought up something she had let slip her mind these past few days: all of this must also have been connected to her being sent to this time period. Of course, she had assumed the ring had somehow caused her predicament in the first place, but it was part of the statute. Either way, if the statue was a vampire or ode to one, she was thrilled it was destroyed because what was in front of her was too much to bear. Then again, it was probably twisted human hearts that had caused it all. No matter who was at fault, the cruelty made her blood boil, and she would be damned if she didn't make sure this place was cleaned out or burned to the ground by the day's end.

The whole thing was giving her a headache, one so bad that it was also making her neck spasm and tighten rather painfully, she took in a deep breath as her inner rambling drifted away, her rapid firing nerves having a monopoly on her attention.

Sharena froze, her eyes shifting down to see where the young boy she had just been holding. His fingers were imbedded rather painfully into her neck. She gritted her teeth at the horrid sensation, quickly realizing that he was draining her blood. She needed to act fast, if she lost too much, she would be unable to use her hamon. It was necessary to have a steady blood flow to utilize the oxygen-powered energy. Her nails dug into her palms, trying to calm down enough to breathe. Her first attempt to shove him off only ended in an excruciating pain as his fingers flexed under her skin. With all the willpower she could muster the blonde took in a deep breath and forced hamon out through the holes now placed at her throat.

The vampire, who now appeared to have aged after consuming some of her lifeblood, flew back with a screech. Sharena's hands shot up to the cover the neck wounds, trying desperately to steady herself and focus her healing powers where they were now desperately needed. To remain safe, she kept her hand over her throat, applying pressure to the area, her hamon was taking its damned time on the outer wound. She couldn't help but silently thank God that the kid had missed her carotid, she would undoubtedly be fodder had that been the case.

Her breathing still labored, she struggled to even kneel as her legs knocked together, adrenaline induced shock causing her to shake uncontrollably. Luckily, her vision remained relatively clear so she could keep an eye on the now hulking form before her. A tuft of brown hair at the top of the person's head was all that was left of the young child who had led her there. He now resembled Andre the Giant rather than an innocent victim, and the blood-soaked scowl on his lips only made it a thousand times clearer to her that this was a monster now. With her free hand, she sunk her nails into her clothed leg to quell the tremors, it was effective enough for her to stand up fully and face her attacker.

Gaze unmoving from the hulking mass of flesh, she ripped off a piece from her dress with a bit of difficulty and tied it around her neck so she could move her hand away. The odd thing was that despite attacking her so suddenly, the monster was no longer giving her any attention. Its head was instead twisted to look back over its shoulder, towards the gore-filled cages she had tried so hard to keep him from seeing. She shuffled backwards from him, hoping she could escape and find Joseph to help fix the issue. She ignored the nagging in her head telling her to handle it on her own since she had confidence that Joseph would be better suited to this even though the monstrosity had a good foot or two on him height wise.

She only stopped paying attention to the creature for a moment, but that was the only moment it needed to break from its own stupor and turn its fury back her way. His eyes were now bloodshot and his jaw set in an almost pained way. For a split second it looked almost sad, but before she could think farther on that it shot forward toward her with a howl. She let out a rather unladylike shriek and sprinted back the way she came. The hallways were no longer as terrifying to her and the dim lights seemed brighter as her focus was entirely on outrunning a beast that was much more real than anything her anxiety could cook up.

Her weaving around corners and down corridors was much less graceful than it had been when she was going towards the blasted room as her limbs weren't cooperating very well with her brain and the breakfast of fresh fruit had not prepared her body for the day she was having. This only made her already terrible sense of direction even worse as everything had looked the same when she came down here and her previous guide was now chasing after her with less than pleasant intentions.

Where was that cockiness from the vampire the night before, or the courage to stand up even somewhat to Straizo? It was gone, just like it had been with the German guards. The idea that she needed someone to hold her hand as she did anything was becoming increasingly frustrating the longer she stayed in this time period and she was really starting to wonder whether she should be in Mexico in 1938 in an underground Nazi base being chased by a hulking vampiric experiment rather than back in New York sipping tea with Ms. Erina while Joseph did all the work. Then again, she liked seeing Joseph in action, his tendency in battle was equal parts luck, brains, and talent, and on that note, he didn't know that she needed to a way back to her own time and that the secret may lie within these 'pillar men'.

Her thought process, while important, lasted all but a few moments as she realized she had run herself straight into a dead end. Unable to slow herself down in time she slammed into the wall and slumped to the floor. Surprisingly enough, rather than the hard stone she had viewed upon entering the underground, the wall was a thin metal that hurt a lot less than the solidness she would have suffered alternatively. In fact, had she been more coherent she could have seen that she left scuffing and a small dent, not that such details mattered.

She groaned, head aching for a reason that was her fault for once. She rolled over onto her bottom and leaned her back up against the wall, her face contorted in pain. She tried to focus her breathing to prepare for a last stand.

Sharena heard the beast before she saw him around the corner, feet slapping heavily against floor. Her eyes darted around, trying to identify any weaknesses in the walls in dim lighting. It was much more difficult now that it was metal and not stone that could have bacteria and small plant matter living in its crevices to fuel her abilities.

She remained in her slumped position, letting out a strained and rather frustrated breath. She didn't have the same luck as Joseph, so she highly doubted she could slip her way out of this situation. Damn, she wished he was there. She really wished anyone could have been there so that at the very least she wouldn't die alone, in the middle of the Mexican desert, in an underground Nazi base, in 1938. Even just two out of four of those things would have made her head swim not a week ago. Now she had become so used to shoving down her concerns that she felt numb to most of her situation, not that it would matter if she died. Who would even know if she was gone? Her parents didn't contact her anymore, and her sister was too busy with medical school. She had prepaid rent until January, so there would be no alarm bells in her landlord's head. Professor Schon would undoubtedly want her dead after the incident she had caused. Hell, the Speedwagon organization would probably have her head on a silver platter. At least it was better than being finger food for a mindless beast. Which made her wonder: Was he really a perpetrator in all this? Or had he really been a helpless child experimented on and losing his humanity unwillingly? Her heart ached at the thought, she wasn't very fond of children, but she certainly wasn't heartless. Had the kid even harmed a hair on anyone's head, but her own? The possibility that his mind had only remained intact long enough to cry out for the help of his brethren lit the flames in her soul once more.

She let out another breath, not realizing that retreating into her own mind had calmed her heartbeat down immensely. Her teal eyes flashed at they looked up at the poor soul now approaching her. The walls seemed to shake as he got nearer, but she was hardly perturbed. Using the wall for support she rose to her feet, legs steadier than ever and breathing calmed.

"I promise outright not to kill you," she mumbled, "You don't deserve anymore suffering, so I'm only going to find my way out of this place." Sharena raised her fists up, ready to defend her face, or attack if he got close enough.

Surprisingly enough, neither occurred as the beast simply stared at her. It was then that she saw his chocolate-colored eyes glimmer with unshed tears, the same pleading eyes she had seen when he was a child. Her brow knitted at the pure innocence she saw there. He didn't look like he planned to attack her anymore, which was good, transformed or not, hitting a child was not something she could ever take pleasure in. Her arms fell back to her side and she gave him a small, comforting smile. He remained frozen. She needed to make the best of this situation and avoid a fight she could lose even with her newfound determination.

There was a sizable gap on one side of the towering beast, and as Sharena made movements towards the area, there was no attempt to deter her. Taking this as a sign of him either being too dazed for a fight, or him somehow genuinely letting her leave, she continued her approach.

As she neared close enough to go around him, her cloak just barely brushed against his bare arm. In an instant he snapped out of his stupor and grabbed hold of the top of her head. He lifted her off the ground and let her dangle there like a prize caught in a claw machine. When she struggled ever so slightly, he squeezed harder. Unwilling to play damsel in distress any longer, Sharena sent a hamon-fueled chop directly to its wrist. She was released straightaway, hitting the ground running with little time to waste. The beast bellowed out a cry of pain behind her, but the blonde refused to look back. She needed to gain some distance before it realized it could go on living without the use of its hand. That was assuming her chop didn't cause the thing's arm to explode from the sunlight energy, but she didn't want to be overly optimistic.

Just then she heard a roar of anger and nearly fell over as the entire corridor shook under the pounding movements of the monster. The lights flickered with each impact. And a slick sheen of sweat developed upon her brow, from both nervousness and overexertion. While Sharena had kept in relatively decent shape after her grandfather's death, she was in no ways prepared for the day she was having, and her body had been running on fumes for too long. She had to stop for a breather, and that she did. Hands resting on bent knees, she leaned over and greedily took in the stale air of the underground.

It was just then that the vampiric fiend crashed through the wall adjacent to her. Debris was spread about, a piece of brick and shards of metal tearing into her arms with prejudice. She shielded her eyes from the dust, blinking repeatedly before squinting to prepare to attack, but what she saw left her awestruck.

The beast may have broken through the wall, but it was clearly not willing. The dark creature, while having an arm completely blown off from her earlier attack, was on the ground, his entire body was scraped up. It could be confidently assumed that he had been thrown through wall. But what could have done such a thing?

Very slowly she turned her head in the direction of the broken wall, dust still was billowing out of the cavernous cavity. A humanoid silhouette appeared amongst it, her eyes widened with wonder at the sight. It was tall enough to be Joseph, but she knew that it was certainly not. This being was muscular, but lithe with a small waist. As the being strode out, her mouth went dry. Shadows did the being misjustice as she saw him in all his glory. Much like with Straizo, he was nude, but that wasn't where her eyes focused. It was the look on his pristine face, he was the young god who'd grown bored of mortal pleasures. While his golden eyes didn't scream 'tortured', she could tell he was much older than his physical appearance let on. There was a deep and intricate story told within his irises, one she would most likely never hear. Instead she would sit there and read his body language, his facial expressions, and just maybe it would hint her to something, anything that went on within the demigod's conscious mind.

Her eyes moved down from his face, taking in all she could of his body in a purely scientific way. His skin had an immortal glow to its golden-tan shade. Long twisting locks the color of papayas draped over his shoulders and down his back. Peeking through those untamed threads on his head were two little horns, perhaps made of bone, perhaps they were for decoration, perhaps not.

The longer she stared, the more she felt like he was familiar to her. She knew not why, but the name 'Santana' passed through her brain and slipped through her lips as less than a whisper. Just as those three syllables left her mouth, his head jolted to stare at her, his countenance unchanging.

His gaze shifted down to the scientific monstrosity that still lay groaning in a small crater. Sharena's eyes followed his movement, her brain too stimulated to do much of anything, it had been too long since something had interested her intellectual side in such a way. There was no way she could even let herself blink, lest she miss a learning opportunity such as this. She regretted that decision near instantly. He moved with casual strides towards the beast from before, and when it lay directly at his feet, he took another step. Her eyes widened as this 'Santana's' limbs seemed to phase directly through, she hadn't the slightest idea what was going on, but foolishly took a step closer. The blonde was surprised that she went ignored despite how her footsteps echoed in the quiet underground. Then it hit her, that putrid smell she had become quite familiar with after Joseph had blown Straizo to smithereens. Her olfactory bulb was being unpleasantly assaulted today, but kindly identified the scent as digestive enzymes mixed with flesh. Several lights went on in her head as she put several pieces together.

For a split second she had considered that this being was a more advanced vampire, a representation of what Straizo could have become further down the line, but as she stood there and watched the monster who had been such a threat to her, be walked through and now digested simply through touch, it was too much. This was unquestionably the pillar man. A being that even Straizo, whom believed himself all powerful, feared to unleash upon the world.

Perhaps she should have stopped him, perhaps it was cruel to just sit and watch as Santana digested the monster who was once a child, but he didn't seem to be in any pain, in fact the beast just lay there, not a care in the world. Santana seemed equally unfazed, simply standing there absorbing another life form as if she wasn't intently studying him as he did so. It didn't particularly cross her mind to stop him, perhaps because she knew the beast was too far gone to save, or perhaps simply because she was selfish, and would have preferred to watch rather than become a second course.

In her stupor, Sharena failed to recognize that Santana was not only done with his meal but was casually making his way towards her. It was only when his chest blocked out her view of anything else that she flinched at his proximity. Her eyes moved up to his, the same bored sheen glowed in his emberous irises. His facial expression remained slacked, but his eyes still felt like they burned against her skin. She took a step back, concerned that she was his last meal, but he simply followed her forward.

Sharena sucked in a breath as he moved in closer. Her feet felt cemented to the floor, so she leaned her head back from him. He remained unperturbed and lowered his face towards the joint between her neck and shoulder. Undoubtedly her face would have been bright red with embarrassment had her primary emotion not currently have been fear. His nose brushed gently against her skin, dancing right below her hairline. Her entire body tensed tenfold as he continued his ministrations, blood rushing towards each point of contact.

Then he did something that left her flabbergasted, he sniffed her. The action was intent and animalistic, as if both memorizing and discerning her scent. She scoffed to herself, recalling the way her uncle's hunting dog treated her similarly whenever she visited as a child. Back then she was told to just let him do his thing rather than resist, she never thought a simple lesson such as that would be utilized in a more serious, albeit unusual situation.

Santana continued to apply pressure against her throat, moving slowly to just under her chin, she absently adjusted herself to give him better access and in turn avoid extra contact with him. As he reached below her other ear, he suddenly stopped, removing himself from her person just as fast as he had started. Drawing back, a single thick brow raised ever so slightly, confusion leaking into those previously gilded eyes.

There was no time to contemplate his reaction. Without skipping a beat, he grabbed ahold of her arm from beneath her cloak in a vice grip. It only served to make her wonder why everyone was so keen on manhandling her, or at least attempting to do so, today. Regardless of her previous desire to learn more about this pillar man, her conscience was growing tired of letting her foolhardiness get the better of her once again. She decided to act.

He must have held a good bit of doubt in her strength. His grip may have been sturdy, but a standard effort to rip her arm from his grasp proved fruitful. Though she did not quite expect the counter force of her actions to send her back several feet and onto her bottom.

Despite his facial muscle remaining lax, his eyes held a certain curiosity she assumed they shared. They still pierced her but were not quite focused on her entire body. Rather, they held fast to her lower arm, or more precisely her hand. She chanced a glance downwards, realization hitting her.

"This ring…" she mumbled, raising the limb out to display the gem under the lackluster lighting, "What is so important about it?" she queried, turning her head as she twisted her wrist back and forth. She looked to him, even if she wasn't expecting a clear answer from him.

"For Journey, I will not both-er with you, you are his," his deep voice pronounced each syllable as if saying it for the very time. She was amazed that he had actually responded to her, and surprised by the baritone, comparable to the Mexican desert winds, intense and gritty. The sound, while pleasant, made her miss Joseph's voice…

"I am whose? Are you saying someone owns me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she shouted back. Flabbergasted by the audacity she scooted back a couple meters.

"Smell like him, marked by him, but not him. Must be-" he rolled the next word around on his tongue for a moment before spitting her word back at her, "-owned."

Sharena sat their fuming. She now knew how Joseph felt when Straizo killed himself. NO explanations, NO clarification, just cryptic bull. "You can't just leave without giving me any clarification!" she shouted, jumping up to her feet.

Santana's only response was a single amused twitch of his nose. He didn't deem her important enough for any more of an answer. Turning away from her he began to walk back towards the hole he had created.

Her feet remained glued to the ground, unable to make chase. Fists clenched and unclenched as her breathing, while controlled and perfect for hamon usage, was coming out as hot, heavy air through her nostrils. It was too anticlimactic. He should have told her something more, or even tried to attack her, not just let her be and wander off to wreak havoc elsewhere. Her subsequent cries of frustration simply echoed down the hall and back towards her. Santana was gone and she had nothing to show for her entire time spent in this labyrinth of suffering.

The truth of the matter was that she couldn't just sit here and let Santana go off on his own. There was no doubt that Joseph would come into contact with him and they would do battle, and while Joseph was rather quick on the uptake, this could be a battle he could not quite win alone. Straizo had said it, Erina had said it, there was some twisted destiny that she realized she was slowly getting tangled in. And that was just it, even as exhaustion tried to inch its way farther up her body, the kindling of her soul lit back up. At the very least she could not allow Santana to leave this base, she may get in the way of Joseph's battle, but she'd be damned if she just hid down here and didn't make an effort to keep humanity from suffering the same fate at that young boy, or rather the monster she had seen be absorbed. She let Santana walk off without a word, she needed to help clean up this mess.

Sharena got to her feet, ready to track Santana down. Her legs carried her back towards the hole he had left through, but just as she peeked in a terrible cry of terror reached her ears. She spun around, realizing the pillar man had somehow diverted his path to lead somewhere in the opposite direction of where he had exited. More terrified yells followed, but she did not require a second sign. Ignoring her body's exhaustion and her brain's confusion she ran off once more, praying that the sounds did not belong to an innocent, or even worse, to Joseph…

 **A huge thanks to those who have stayed with this, or to those just entering. I know there wasn't much main character action here, but the next chapter will be plentiful. Big thanks to FinalFVII for bearing with my demands as a beta reader, and thank you to everyone who have reviewed, that really keeps me going. As always, if you have any complaints, concerns, suggestions, or just want to review for the sake of potential readers, go on ahead. If you would prefer not to make your comment public, feel free to message me here or on wattpad. Have a great days, see ya.**


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